Contraband

Contraband is a short fiction film about a young woman’s struggle to escape from a criminal life. As she is forced to smuggle drugs during prison visits to her husband, she must decide whether to protect him or abandon him. Leaving might give her a chance to save herself and her child from this life and have a better future. The movie takes place in modern-day Los Angeles. This paper describes and analyzes my filmmaking process as the writer and director of Contraband, and how my life experience and inspirations influenced my work

Analysis of Gait Dynamics of ALS Disease and Classification of Artificial Neural Networks

In this study, a gait device was used for gathering data. A group comprising control group and ALS patients was requested to walk using this device. Gait signals of the control group individuals and ALS patients taken from their left feet were recorded by means of the sensors sensitive to the force which was placed to the device. Spectral and statistical analyses of these signals were made. The results obtained from these analyses were used for making classification with Artificial Neural Network. In consequence of the classification, the individuals with ALS disease were diagnosed accurately with an average rate of 82 %. In the study, the signals taken from left foot of 14 normal individuals and 13 ALS patients were analyzed

Determination of Barreling of Aluminum Solid Cylinders During Cold Upsetting Using Genetic Algorithm

This study presents Genetic Programming models for the formulation of barreling of aluminum solid cylindersduring cold upsetting based on experimental results. The maximum and minimum radii of the barreledcylinders having different aspect ratio (d/h= 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0) were measured for various frictional conditions(m=0.1-0.4). The change in radii with respect to height reduction showed different trends before and afterfolding, therefore, the corresponding reduction ratios of folding were also determined by using incrementalupsetting. Genetic programming models were prepared using the experimental results with the input variablesof the aspect ratio, the friction coefficient, and the reduction in height. The minimum and maximum barrelingradii were formulated as output taking the folding into consideration. The performance of proposed GP modelsare quite satisfactory (R2 = 0.908-0.998).Keywords: Upset, forging, barreling, bulging, axisymmetric compression

Determination of right ventricular dysfunction using the speckle tracking echocardiography method in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

Background: The speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) method shows the presence of right ventricular (RV) dysfunction before the advent of RV failure and pulmonary hypertension in patients with cardiopulmonary disease. We aimed to assess subclinical RV dysfunction in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) using the STE method. Method: Twenty-one healthy individuals and 58 OSA patients were included. According to severity as determined by the apnea&#8211;hypopnea index (AHI), OSA patients were examined in three groups: mild, moderate and severe. RV free wall was used in STE examination. Results: Right ventricle strain (ST %) and systolic strain rate (STR-S 1/s) were decreasing along with the disease severity (ST &#8212; healthy: &#8211;34.05 &#177; &#8211;4.29; mild: &#8211;31.4 &#177; &#8211;5.37; moderate: &#8211;22.75 &#177; &#8211;4.89; severe: &#8211;20.89 &#177; &#8211;5.59; p < 0.003; STR-S &#8212; healthy: &#8211;2.93 &#177; &#8211;0.64; mild: &#8211;2.85 &#177; &#8211;0.73; moderate: &#8211;2.06 &#177; &#8211;0.43; severe: &#8211;1.43 &#177; &#8211;0.33; p < 0.03). Correlated with the disease severity, the RV early diastolic strain rate (STR-E) was decreasing and the late diastolic strain rate was increasing (STR-E &#8212; healthy: 2.38 &#177; 0.63; mild: 2.32 &#177; 0.84; moderate: 1.66 &#177; 0.55; severe: 1 &#177; 0.54; p < 0.003; STR-A &#8212; healthy: 2.25 &#177; 0.33; mild: 2.32 &#177; 0.54; moderate: 2.79 &#177; 0.66; severe: 3.29 &#177; 0.54; p < 0.03). The STR-E/A ratio was found to be in a decreasing trend along with the disease severity (healthy: 1.08 &#177; 0.34; mild: 1.06 &#177; 0.46; moderate: 0.62 &#177; 0.22; severe: 0.34 &#177; 0.23; p < 0.03). Conclusions: Subclinical RV dysfunction can be established in OSA patients even in the absence of pulmonary hypertension and pathologies which could have adverse effects on RV functions. In addition to the methods of conventional, Doppler and tissue Doppler echocardiography, using the STE method can determine RV dysfunction in the subclinical phase. (Cardiol J 2012; 19, 2: 130&#8211;139

Bending Response of Nanobeams Resting on Elastic Foundation

In the present study, the finite element method is developed for the static analysis of nano-beams under the Winkler foundation and the uniform load. The small scale effect along with Eringen's nonlocal elasticity theory is taken into account. The governing equations are derived based on the minimum potential energy principle. Galerkin weighted residual method is used to obtain the finite element equations. The validity and novelty of the results for bending are tested and comparative results are presented. Deflections according to different Winkler foundation parameters and small scale parameters are tabulated and plotted. As it can be seen clearly from figures and tables, for simply-supported boundary conditions, the effect of small scale parameter is very high when the Winkler foundation parameter is smaller. On the other hand, for clamped-clamped boundary conditions, the effect of small scale parameter is higher when the Winkler foundation parameter is high. Although the effect of the small scale parameter is adverse on deflection for simply-supported and clamped-clamped boundary conditions

A Rare Dermatologic Disease in Pregnancy: Rosacea Fulminans- Case Report and Review of the Literature

BACKGROUND: Rosacea is a common, chronic disorder that can present with a variety of cutaneous or ocular manifestations. Skin involvement primarily affects the central face, with findings such as persistent centrofacial redness, papules, pustules, flushing, telangiectasia, and phymatous skin changes. The pathways that lead to the development of rosacea are not well understood. The relationship of pyoderma faciale (also known as rosacea fulminans) to rosacea also is uncertain. We aimed to write this article with the aim of showing how a pregnant patient who has been aggravated by the degree of lesions on the face during the first trimester of pregnancy is treated and to show what is in the literature in this issue.CASE REPORT: A 22-year-old woman complained of painful erythema, papules and pustules on the face. She had fever and malaise during the sixth week of her first pregnancy and a history of the mild eruption and seborrhea before her pregnancy with flaring over the preceding 4 weeks. Dermatologic examination revealed red erythema of all involved facial areas; the lesions consisted of papules, pustules and nodules. The case was diagnosed as rosacea fulminans (pyoderma faciale) by these findings. In the literature, there are some effective therapeutic options such as retinoids, tetracyclines, antiandrogenic contraceptives, and dapsone and these were not used because they are contraindicated in pregnancy. Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid 1 gr/day, wet compresses, and a fusidic acid cream were started. After the activity of the disease had been suppressed for 10 days, antibiotic was stopped, and the other treatment options were applied topically for the next month. One month after cessation of treatment, the lesions had disappeared with only mild erythema remaining. There was minimally flushing on the face and no telangiectasia.CONCLUSION: In conclusion, there is no substantial evidence as to the mechanism by which pregnancy may trigger this conditioner whether the gender of the fetus influences the development of rosacea fulminans, but is generally accepted that hormonal changes in pregnancy play an important role. The pathogenesis of rosacea fulminans remains uncertain, but it is obvious that the further basic and clinical research is required to optimise the management of this rare facial dermatosis

Effect of taxifolin on acrylamide-induced oxidative and proinflammatory lung injury in rats: Biochemical and histopathological studies

Purpose: To examine the probable beneficial effects of taxifolin against acrylamide damage in lung tissue.Methods: 18 male albino Wistar rats were divided into healthy (HG), acrylamide (AG) and taxifolin + acrylamide (TAG) groups. Once a day for 30 days, acrylamide was orally administered to the AG group (50 mg/kg), while ACL (50 mg/kg) and TAX (20 mg/kg) were orally administered to TAG group. Protein concentration, malondialdehyde (MDA), and total glutathione (tGSH) levels as well as oxidant and antioxidant molecules concentrations of the rat lung tissues were measured. In addition, degree of mononuclear (MN) cell infiltration and bronchial-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) hyperplasia was evaluated by the degree of hyperplasia (absent, mild, moderate, severe). The histopathological andbiochemical data the groups were compared.Results: When compared in terms of MDA levels, it was found that the AG group had high MDA levels, and the TAG group had low MDA levels. (p &lt; 0.001). TAG group was found to have a higher tGSH level than the AG group (p &lt; 0.001). Compared to the AG group, lower TOS and higher TAS levels were obtained in the TAG group (p &lt; 0.001). In addition, when TOS levels of TAG and HG groups were compared, the TOS levels between the two groups were statistically insignificant (p = 0.213). It has been observed that TAX administration prevents the increase in NF-ƘB level. When the NF-ƘB levels of the AG and TAG groups were compared with each other, there was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.001). In the AG group, severe MN cell hyperplasia and BALT hyperplasia were observed histopathologically. It was determined that these findings were alleviated in the TAG group. A histopathologically significant difference was found between AG and TAG groups (p &lt; 0.05).Conclusion: Taxifolin has beneficial effects against lung injury caused by acrylamide, a healthdamaging environmental factor. Regular use of taxifolin can be recommended, especially in people who are known to have intense contact with acrylamide. There is a need for research studies on this subject

Are Deep Learning Classification Results Obtained on CT Scans Fair and Interpretable?

Following the great success of various deep learning methods in image and object classification, the biomedical image processing society is also overwhelmed with their applications to various automatic diagnosis cases. Unfortunately, most of the deep learning-based classification attempts in the literature solely focus on the aim of extreme accuracy scores, without considering interpretability, or patient-wise separation of training and test data. For example, most lung nodule classification papers using deep learning randomly shuffle data and split it into training, validation, and test sets, causing certain images from the CT scan of a person to be in the training set, while other images of the exact same person to be in the validation or testing image sets. This can result in reporting misleading accuracy rates and the learning of irrelevant features, ultimately reducing the real-life usability of these models. When the deep neural networks trained on the traditional, unfair data shuffling method are challenged with new patient images, it is observed that the trained models perform poorly. In contrast, deep neural networks trained with strict patient-level separation maintain their accuracy rates even when new patient images are tested. Heat-map visualizations of the activations of the deep neural networks trained with strict patient-level separation indicate a higher degree of focus on the relevant nodules. We argue that the research question posed in the title has a positive answer only if the deep neural networks are trained with images of patients that are strictly isolated from the validation and testing patient sets.Comment: This version has been submitted to CAAI Transactions on Intelligence Technology. 202

Olfactory Neuroblastomas: An Experience of 24 Years

Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinicopathological findings and the efficacy of the treatment modalities used in patients with olfactory neuroblastomas. Study Design. Retrospective record review. Setting. Istanbul University, Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, medical oncology outpatient clinic. Subjects and Methods. There were 3 stage A tumors, 5 stage B and 11 stage C according to the Kadish staging system. There were 5 grade I/II and 12 grade III/IV according to the Hyams' histopathologic system. Involvement to orbita was detected in eight patients at the time of diagnosis. Results. The median follow-up period was 23.7 months. The 5-year survival rate for the whole group was 26%. The stage A/B groups exhibited a better survival rate than the C group with 2-year survival rates being 25 versus 71% respectively (P = .008). The grade I/II groups exhibited a better survival rate than the grade III/IV groups with 2-year survival rates being 50 versus 16% respectively (P = .001). The group who had orbital involvement exhibited a poor survival rate than the group of patients who had no involvement of the orbital. Conclusion. In our study, tumor stage, histopathologic grading, involvement of the orbita, brain and bone marow metastases were the statistically significant prognostic factors

Contraception counselling during gynecology visit — does a questionnaire help?

Objectives: Women are at risk of unplanned pregnancy and inappropriate choice of contraception if not given effectivecontraception counselling. We aimed to understand the contraceptive needs of women, improve effective contraceptioncounselling promoting modern contraception methods during gynecology outpatient visit using a contraception counsellingquestionnaire.Material and methods: All reproductive-age women over 18 were given Contraception Counselling Project Form to fill inwhile in the waiting room. The form consisted of 15 questions evaluating patients’ characteristics and contraceptive methodused. Physicians evaluated these forms during the examination and an appropriate method was chosen. Forms of pregnant,postmenopausal and sexually inactive patients as well as forms with more than one answer missing were excluded.Results: 778 questionnaires were accepted for evaluation. 340 women (43.8%) used modern contraception, 112 (14.4%)used interrupted coitus, 3 (0.4%) used calendar method. 738 women could be given adequate contraception counsellingby the physicians. 215 women among 323 women (66.5%) who did not use modern contraception and did not desirepregnancy, were convinced to use modern contraception and 103 (91.9%) among 112 women who used interruptedcoitus for contraception were convinced to use modern contraception. There was a significant relationship between age,education, working state, parity, number and type of delivery, previous OCP usage, resources of contraception and thepreferred contraception method.Conclusions: More than half the women preferred to use modern contraception methods by means of contraceptioncounselling questionnaire. Women’s backgrounds significantly affected their choice of contraception method