Corruption and Financial Development : Evidence from Eastern Europe and Central Asia Countries

Studying the relation between corruption perception and financial markets and examining its consequences for the financial system have attracted many researchers in recent years. To understand the effect of it’s to financial markets is important for especially emerging countries. This paper examined the impact of Corruption Perception Index (CPI), government size, openness, and GDP on the financial development using the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) approach of 19 Eastern Europe and Central Asia countries for the period 2012 to 2017 as yearly dates. Our findings suggest that there is not a relationship between the level of corruption perception and financial development

Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Cinsel Mitler/Cinsel Saldırı Mitlerine İlişkin Tutumları ve Görüşleri

Amaç: Çalışma, bir vakıf üniversitesinde okuyan üniversite öğrencilerinin cinsel mitler/cinsel saldırı mitlerine ilişkin görüş ve tutumlarını araştırmak amacıyla yapılmıştır. Yöntem: Araştırma tanımlayıcı tiptedir. Mühendislik-mimarlık fakültesi, fen-edebiyat fakültesi ve sağlık bilimleri yüksekokulu (SBYO) hemşirelik bölümünde eğitim gören 140 öğrenci örneklemi oluşturmuştur. Veri toplama araçları iki bölümden oluşmakta olup birinci bölümde sosyodemografik özellikler ve cinsellik ile ilgili sorular; ikinci bölümde araştırmacılar tarafından literatür doğrultusunda oluşturulan cinsel mitler ve cinsel saldırı mitleri ile ilgili 15 mit bulunmaktadır. Bulgular: Çalışmaya katılan öğrencilerin yaş ortalaması 21,98±1,70 olup %48,6’sı (n=68) kadın, %51,4’ü erkektir. %32,1’i (n=45) SBYO hemşirelik bölümünde, %25,7’si (n=36) mühendislik-mimarlık fakültesindeki bölümlerde, %42,1’i (n=59) fen-edebiyat fakültesindeki bölümlerde eğitim almaktadır. Öğrencilerin en fazla iletişim araçlarından (%44,2) cinsellik ile ilgili bilgileri aldıkları, %48,6’sının (n=68) evlenmeden önceki cinsel ilişki hakkındaki düşüncesinin olumsuz olduğu görüldü. Erkeklerin, hemşirelik bölümü ve mühendislik-mimarlık fakültesi öğrencilerinin ve evlenmeden önce cinsel ilişki hakkında olumsuz görüşü olanların bazı cinsel mit/cinsel saldırı mitlerine anlamlı düzeyde daha çok katıldıkları sonucuna ulaşıldı. Sonuç: Üniversite öğrencileri arasında düşük oranda da olsa söz konusu mitleri doğru kabul edenler bulunmaktadır. Bu durum, toplumsal cinsiyet rolleri, kısıtlayıcı kültürel normlar ve eğitim sisteminde cinsel saldırı ve cinsellikle ilgili eğitim ve bilgilendirmelerin yetersizliğinden kaynaklanabilir. Eğitim ve öğretim sisteminin şekillendirilmesi, üniversite öğrencilerine cinsel mitler ve cinsel saldırı mitleri ile ilgili farkındalık kazandırarak öğrencilerin doğru bilgileri edinmesine ve içselleştirmesine fayda sağlayacaktır

Investigation of Factors Affecting Viral Clearance Time by Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Method in Nasopharyngeal Swab Samples of COVID-19 Patients

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to threaten the lives of millions of people. Viral shedding through the respiratory tract is the main risk factor for the transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus from sick individuals to healthy individuals. In this study, we aimed to investigate the viral clearance (VC) time in PCR tests of COVID-19 patients and the possible factors affecting this time. Seventy patients older than 18 years of age whose presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus was proven by real-time polymerase chain reaction (Rt-PCR) in nasopharyngeal swab samples were included in the study. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was investigated by RT-PCR in nasopharyngeal swab samples at 48-72 hour intervals, five days after the initial diagnosis. Demographic, physical examination, laboratory test, computed tomography (CT) results, concomitant diseases, and duration of VC were recorded. Of the cases, 41 were female and 29 were male. The mean age was 45.8 +/- 19.2 years. According to the CT results, in the group with no involvement, local involvement and widespread involvement, the duration of VC was 9.66 +/- 5.91 days, 9.99 +/- 4.68 days, and 10.94 +/- 5.34 days, respectively (p>0.05). While the duration of VC was determined as 8.93 +/- 4.33 days in the group without comorbidity, this period was found to be 12.26 +/- 5.69 days (p=0.025) in the group with the comorbidity. It was determined that the duration of VC was 9.55 +/- 6.37 days in women and 9.20 +/- 7.22 days in men (p=0.040). The duration of VC was found to be 10.18 +/- 7.1 days in patients over 50 years of age and 8.87 +/- 5.15 days under 50 years of age (p=0.03). A significant correlation was found between the laboratory test lactate dehydrogenase level and VC duration (p=0.007). However, a significant relationship could not be established between other laboratory test results and the duration of VC. In this retrospective observational study, the relationship between viral clearance duration in Rt-PCR and gender, age, CT results, comorbidities and laboratory results in nasopharyngeal swab samples was investigated and it was determined that the duration of VC was significantly prolonged in case of female gender, being over 50 years old and having a comorbid disease. The results obtained may contribute to predict the isolation times of the patients and to reveal the factors that may affect viral shedding

An LED-Based Structured Illumination Microscope Using A Digital Micromirror Device And GPU Accelerated Image Reconstruction

When combined with computational approaches, fluorescence imaging becomes one of the most powerful tools in biomedical research. It is possible to achieve resolution figures beyond the diffraction limit, and improve the performance and flexibility of high-resolution imaging systems with techniques such as structured illumination microscopy (SIM) reconstruction. In this study, the hardware and software implementation of an LED-based superresolution imaging system using SIM employing GPU accelerated parallel image reconstruction is presented. The sample is illuminated with two-dimensional sinusoidal patterns with various orientations and lateral phase shifts generated using a digital micromirror device (DMD). SIM reconstruction is carried out in frequency space using parallel CUDA kernel functions. Furthermore, a general purpose toolbox for the parallel image reconstruction algorithm and an infrastructure that allows all users to perform parallel operations on images without developing any CUDA kernel code is presented. The developed image reconstruction algorithm was run separately on a CPU and a GPU. Two different SIM reconstruction algorithms have been developed for the CPU as mono-thread CPU algorithm and multi-thread OpenMP CPU algorithm. SIM reconstruction of 1024 × 1024 px images was achieved in 1.49 s using GPU computation, indicating an enhancement by *28 and *20 in computation time when compared with mono-thread CPU computation and multi-thread OpenMP CPU computation, respectively

Choroidal Thickness in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Type Dementia

Aim. To asses both choroidal thickness differences among Alzheimer’s type dementia (ATD) patients, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, and healthy control (C) subjects and choroidal thickness relationships with cognitive performance. Methods. A total of 246 eyes of 123 people (41 ATD, 38 MCI, and 44 healthy C subjects) were included in this study. Complete ophthalmological and neurological examination was performed in all subjects. Choroidal thicknesses (CT) were measured at seven locations: the fovea, 500-1500-3000 μm temporal and 500-1500-3000 μm nasal to the fovea by enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography (EDI-OCT). Detailed neurological examination including mini mental state examination (MMSE) test which evaluates the cognitive function was applied to all participants. Results. The ages and genders of all participants were similar in all groups. Compared with healthy C subjects, the CT measurements at all regions were significantly thinner both in patients with ATD and in patients with MCI than in healthy C subjects (p<0.05). The MMSE scores were significantly different among ATD patients, MCI patients, and healthy C subjects. They were 19.3±1.8, 24.8±0.9, and 27.6±1.2 in ATD, MCI, and healthy controls, respectively (p<0.001). There were also significant correlation between MMSE score and choroidal thickness at each location (p<0.05). Conclusions. CT was reduced in ATD patients and MCI patients. Since vascular structures were affected in ATD patients and MCI patients, they had thin CT. Besides CT was correlated with degree of cognitive impairment. Therefore CT may be a new biomarker in diagnosis and follow-up of MCI and ATD patients

Fabrication and Characterization of Large Numerical Aperture, High-Resolution Optical Fiber Bundles Based on High-Contrast Pairs of Soft Glasses for Fluorescence Imaging

Fabrication and characterization of flexible optical fiber bundles (FBs) with inhouse synthesized high-index and low-index thermally matched glasses are presented. The FBs composed of around 15000 single-core fibers with pixel sizes between 1.1 and 10 μm are fabricated using the stack-and-draw technique from sets of thermally matched zirconiumsilicate ZR3, borosilicate SK222, sodium-silicate K209, and F2 glasses. With high refractive index contrast pair of glasses ZR3/SK222 and K209/F2, FBs with numerical apertures (NAs) of 0.53 and 0.59 are obtained, respectively. Among the studied glass materials, ZR3, SK222, and K209 are in-house synthesized, while F2 is commercially acquired. Seven different FBs with varying pixel sizes and bundle diameters are characterized. Brightfield imaging of a micro-ruler and a Convallaria majalis sample and fluorescence imaging of a dye-stained paper tissue and a cirrhotic mice liver tissue are demonstrated using these FBs, demonstrating their good potential for microendoscopic imaging. Brightfield and fluorescence imaging performance of the studied FBs are compared. For both sets of glass compositions, good imaging performance is observed for FBs, with core diameter and core-to-core distance values larger than 1.6 μm and 2.3 μm, respectively. FBs fabricated with K209/F2 glass pairs revealed better performance in fluorescence imaging due to their higher NA of 0.59

Adli Bilimlerde Adli Tıp ve Adli Tıp Dışı Alanların Türkiye’deki Yapılanması ile İlgili Sorunlar : İki Rapor ile Değerlendirme

Adli bilimler, özel bir uzmanlık gerektiren birçok dalı bünyesinde barındıran bir üst yapıdır. Uzmanlık gerektiren bu dalların uygulamaya doğru bir şekilde tatbik edilebilmesi ise kendine özgü bir örgütlenmeyi gerektirmektedir. Bu şekilde bir örgütlenmeyi kurabilmenin yolu, sorunların hem içerden hem de dışardan bir gözle değerlendirilmesine sıkı bir biçimde bağlıdır. Dolayısıyla, adli bilimler ve adli tıbbın Türkiye’deki yapılanması ile ilgili sorunlara bütüncül yaklaşmak maksadıyla konu ile ilgili literatür taranmış ve adli tıp ve adli tıp dışı alanlardaki sorunların tartışıldığı iki kaynağa ulaşılmıştır. Bunlardan ilki Cumhurbaşkanlığı Devlet Denetleme Kurulu’nun (DDK) 2010 yılında hazırladığı çalışmadır. Bu çalışmadaki temel perspektif Avrupa Birliği normlarını sağlamaktır. Diğer çalışma ise Prof. Dr. Yasemin Balcı editörlüğünde, Adli Tıp Uzmanları Derneği tarafından hazırlanan ve 7 Nisan 2007 tarihinde kabul edilen “Adli Tıp Hizmet Modeli ve İnsan Gücü Planlaması” adlı raporudur. Günümüze kadar alan ile ilgili olarak birçok araştırma yapılmış olmakla birlikte birçok alanın ve konunun kapsamlı olarak tartışıldığı ve önerilerde bulunulduğu söz konusu iki rapor ön plana çıkmaktadır. Bu kapsamda değerlendirilen bu ayrıntılı raporlarda belirtilen bu sorunlarla ilgili olarak, sorunların çözümlenmesinde önerilen yapılar ve düzenlemelerin yerine getirilmesinde eksiklikler olduğu görülmektedir. Bu sebeple öncelikli olarak bu raporlarda belirtilen sorunların çözümü için günümüze kadar yapılmış herhangi bir düzenleme ve yapılanma konusu yeri geldiğinde tartışılmıştır

The evaluation of medical malpractice claims: creating a standard approach model using the delphi method

Complaints about alleged medical malpractice have increased over time in Turkey, as well as other countries around the world. And it is often the subject of debate in health law and medical law.It can be seen that discussions are underway on "standard of care" which is highlighted in the finalization of claims for medical malpractice. In this case, the expert opinion offered to be the key point for the cases. In the expert opinion, there seems to be differences in approach and procedure. However, the period of determination of whether health professionals provide the expected minimum standard of care needs to be analyzed in a standard way. In addition to standard, objective and scientific evaluation of the evidence of liability for the medical malpractice claims by the experts, it is aimed to create an algorithm that will facilitate the evaluation by the judicial authorities.The aim of this research is to provide minimum common denominator which will be the standard approach model for the experts in the evaluation of medical malpractice claims.The Delphi method was used as a tool for the panelists to express their opinions freely without being under the influence of each other and to reveal different ideas. The research conducted with 11 panelists consist of forensic medicine experts, clinicians, and a lawyer between January 2017 and September 2017.This research will impact the forensic science and law community by serving the evaluations of the experts in medical malpractice claims whether evaluations are based on methodological and logical considerations and the scientific validity of the evaluations is objective or not

The effect of board of directors characteristics on risk and bank performance: Evidence from Turkey

A bank, particularly in developing countries like Turkey, is one of the most important institutions in the financial sector. Therefore knowing the factors affecting the performance of banks is important for the development of the sector. One of the factors affecting the risk and profitability of banking sector is the internal factors of the banks. The aim of this paper is to investigate the board of directors’ characteristics and its effect on risk level measured by non-performing loans and on bank performance measured by asset profitability using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator. Data from nineteen deposit banks for the period 2012–2018 were used. The result of the study determined that the board size, foreign board members and the independent board members have an effect on both non-performing loans and the return on assets