Systematic Analysis of Multi-Source Inspection Database via Ship Smart Audit System

This study proposes a methodology to deeply analyze the multi-source inspection/audit findings gathered from a ship fleet to promote and implement proactive measures systematically. In addition to the ship audit reports of Company-A operating 16 bulk carriers in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, the multi-source inspection database also consists of benchmarking datasets of different fleets. The Ship Smart Audit System (SSAS), including data collection, causation, analysis and prioritization, and implementation phases, is developed to strengthen the maritime regulatory compliance. Particularly, the Marine Systematic Cause Analysis Technique (M-SCAT), Cognitive Mapping (CM), and Pareto analysis are integrated into methodological background of the study. The SSAS is demonstrated with 5,000 findings from the benchmarking dataset and, subsequently, over 1,900 findings from the Company-A. Then, cause priorities, root cause trends, preventive actions, and audit item preferences are identified as an interconnected process of the ship management company. Consequently, the study encourages maritime executives to increase the effectiveness of pre-inspection and internal audit implementations

Prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility of Mycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum in pregnant women

SummaryBackgroundMycoplasma hominis and Ureaplasma urealyticum are important opportunistic pathogens implicated in urogenital infections and complicated pregnancy. We aimed to study the role of these pathogens in symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women and determine their clinical significance and antibiotic susceptibility.MethodsOne hundred pregnant women were included in the study, 50 symptomatic patients and 50 asymptomatic controls. Duplicate endocervical samples were taken from each individual and analyzed using the Mycoplasma IST-2 kit and A7 agar medium. Antimicrobial susceptibility was tested against doxycycline, josamycin, ofloxacin, erythromycin, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, and pristinamycin using the Mycoplasma IST-2 kit.ResultsTwelve symptomatic pregnant women had spontaneous abortions. Of these, eight (66.7%) cases had been colonized with M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum. Of the pregnant women infected with M. hominis and/or U. urealyticum, 40.7% delivered a low birth weight infant. M. hominis was successfully cultured in five women (5%) and U. urealyticum in 27 (27%). Among positive cultures, 15.6% and 84.4% of isolates were M. hominis and U. urealyticum, respectively. M. hominis and U. urealyticum were uniformly susceptible to doxycycline, tetracycline, and pristinamycin, which may be successfully used in the empirical therapy of infected individuals.ConclusionsIt can be concluded that genital colonization with M. hominis and U. urealyticum may predispose to spontaneous abortion and low birth weight

Exploring the receptor origin of vibration-induced reflexes

STUDY DESIGN: An experimental design. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the latencies of vibration-induced reflexes in individuals with and without spinal cord injury (SCI), and to compare these latencies to identify differences in reflex circuitries. SETTING: A tertiary rehabilitation center in Istanbul. METHODS: Seventeen individuals with chronic SCI (SCI group) and 23 participants without SCI (Control group) were included in this study. Latency of tonic vibration reflex (TVR) and whole-body vibration-induced muscular reflex (WBV-IMR) of the left soleus muscle was tested for estimating the reflex origins. The local tendon vibration was applied at six different vibration frequencies (50, 85, 140, 185, 235, and 265 Hz), each lasting for 15 s with 3-s rest intervals. The WBV was applied at six different vibration frequencies (35, 37, 39, 41, 43, and 45 Hz), each lasting for 15 s with 3-s rest intervals. RESULTS: Mean (SD) TVR latency was 39.7 (5.3) ms in the SCI group and 35.9 (2.7) ms in the Control group with a mean (95% CI) difference of -3.8 (-6.7 to -0.9) ms. Mean (SD) WBV-IMR latency was 45.8 (7.4) ms in the SCI group and 43.3 (3.0) ms in the Control group with a mean (95% CI) difference of -2.5 (-6.5 to 1.4) ms. There were significant differences between TVR latency and WBV-IMR latency in both the groups (mean (95% CI) difference; -6.2 (-9.3 to -3.0) ms, p = 0.0001 for the SCI group and -7.4 (-9.3 to -5.6) ms, p = 0.011 for Control group). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the receptor of origin of TVR and WBV-IMR may be different

Life Underground: Hunting for Armenian Treasure in a Post-Genocide Landscape

This dissertation is based on 18 months of fieldwork in the region of Van, Turkish Kurdistan. It draws on ethnographic research on popular practices regarding the search for treasures (principally gold) that were supposedly buried by the victims of the Armenian genocide in a landscape that is haunted by both past and ongoing violence. It takes as its premise the increasing surge of treasure hunting practices. Although the Armenian genocide took place over a century ago, in 1915, the widespread search for treasures took root during the last three decades, in a context characterized by violence and uncertainty. By bringing the nexus of two enfolded crises, linking contemporary Kurdistan to the material afterlives of the Armenian genocide, this dissertation makes a principal intervention. It considers landscape and materials in the study of memory. As it complements narrative accounts of violent events with an examination of their material remains, it contributes to historical and anthropological studies of violence.  Ethnographically, this dissertation centers on a floating population of treasure hunters and shows how people descend into the world of a hidden underground that is considered more promising than the formal wage sector. In the dissertation, I examine how treasure maps, symbols carved on stones, and a landscape populated by ruins become a register for aspiration and terror. I argue that the nexus of post-genocide landscape and socioeconomic destitution produced a paradoxical consciousness, that a potential better future finds its ground in divination and in breaking the protective spells that are believed to have been cast by the objects' Armenian owners. Within this post-genocide landscape, the Armenian treasures bind the idea of future prosperity and the good life to the very material products of the past genocide. Thus, what is found in the terrain of treasure hunting is a kind of double “occult” practice that engages not only hidden treasure and invisible spirits, but also the occulted history of a genocide which bears, in Turkey, no name

Serum and Amniotic Fluid Eosinophil Cationic Protein Levels in Misoprostol Induced Pregnancies

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) in maternal serum (MS) and amniotic fluid (AF) at term and assess misoprostol induced changes in their mean concentrations. Methods: A total of 53 pregnant women were included in the study: 24 were in active labor, and a further 29 were not in labor and misoprostol induction was performed. The initial 3 mL of amniotic fluid was collected and processed. In all pregnant subjects, maternal blood samples were obtained from the cubital vein at the time of amniotic fluid sampling. The concentration of ECP in serum and AF was measured by chemiluminescence method with the immulite 2000 analyzer (Immulite2000® ECP, DPC Diagnostic Products Corporation 5700 West 96th Street Los Angeles, CA, USA). Results: Misoprostol induced pregnant showed significantly higher concentrations ECP than the control pregnant women in serum. AF-ECP concentrations were not significantly different between two groups. There was no significant difference between MS and AF-ECP concentrations in control subjects. Conclusion: The association we encountered between labor induction with misoprostol and increased systemic production of ECP should be investigated further. [Med-Science 2013; 2(1.000): 436-44

Joint Mobilization and Stretching Exercise vs Steroid Injection in the Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis

Background: This study compared the effectiveness of joint mobilization combined with stretching exercises (JM&Str) vs steroid injection (SI) in the treatment of plantar fasciitis (PF)

Joint Mobilization and Stretching Exercise vs Steroid Injection in the Treatment of Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Study

Background: This study compared the effectiveness of joint mobilization combined with stretching exercises (JM&Str) vs steroid injection (SI) in the treatment of plantar fasciitis (PF)

Germline cells in ovarian surface epithelium of mammalians: a promising notion

<p>Abstract</p> <p>It is a long held doctrine in reproductive biology that women are born with a finite number of oocytes and there is no oogenesis during the postnatal period. However, recent evidence challenges this by showing the presence of germ line stem cells in the human ovarian surface epithelium (OSE), which can serve as a source of germ cells, and differentiate into oocyte like structures. Postnatal renewal of oocytes may have enormous therapeutic potential especially in women facing the risk of premature ovarian failure idiopathically or iatrogenically after exposure to gonadotoxic chemotherapy and radiation for cancer therapy.</p> <p>This article reviews current knowledge on germ line stem cells in human OSE.</p

Intra-ovarian stem cell transplantation in management of premature ovarian insufficiency: towards the induced Oogonial Stem Cell (iOSC)

SAHIN, Erdem/0000-0001-9492-6223; Ak, Mehmet/0000-0003-3384-0586WOS: 000529791700019PubMed: 32359395The specialized resident-stem cells in gonads are tasked with restorating damaged ovarian cells following injury to maintain sequential reproductive events. When we talk about premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) we accept the existence of decreased stem cell and their regenerative abilities. the present study was to explain how restorating damaged ovarian cells following injury to maintain sequential reproductive events in evidence-based medicine indexed in PubMed and Web of Science. the exact mechanism is unclear stem cells transfer may improve compromised ovarian function and fertility outcome in women with POI. Soluble factors secreted by stem cell may rescue impaired mitochondrial function in oogonial stem cells, enhance metabolic capacity of resident stem cells, induce local neovascularization in the ovary, and activate gene shifting between transferred stem cells and germ cell precursors. This review may provide insight into how stem cells show some of their beneficial effects on compromised ovarian microenvironment and germ cell niche and paves the way for clinical trials for improving ovarian function of women with POI. We also had the opportunity to share our hypothesis about the design and development of induced oogonial stem cell (iOSC) and its use in POI