New chromosome numbers in the genus Trigonella L. (Fabaceae)from Turkey

Somatic chromosome numbers of 45 Trigonella L. (Fabaceae), collected from different localities in Turkey was examined. Chromosome numbers were determined as 2n = 14, 16, 30 and 46. B chromosome was also observed in somatic cells of some taxa (Trigonella arcuata C.A. Meyer and Trigonella procumbens (Besser) Reichb.). In addition, one or two satellites were observed in some taxa (Trigonella lunata Boiss., Trigonella velutina Boiss., Trigonella strangulata Boiss., Trigonella crassipes Boiss. and Trigonella cariensis Boiss.).Keywords: Chromosome number, Leguminosae, Trigonell

Tracking aquatic animals for fisheries management in European waters

Acoustic telemetry (AT) has emerged as a valuable tool for monitoring aquatic animals in both European inland and marine waters over the past two decades. The European Tracking Network (ETN) initiative has played a pivotal role in promoting collaboration among AT researchers in Europe and has led to a significant increase in the number of tagged and observed aquatic animals in transboundary European waters. While AT benefits decision-making and delivers essential data to management bodies, its potential for management decision-making mechanisms has yet to be fully harnessed. We reviewed existing research, studies, and organisational initiatives related to aquatic animal tracking and their utility in fisheries management in European waters. We found that AT has already contributed to many aspects of fisheries management, such as improved understanding of stock dynamics, identification of critical habitats, assessment of migration routes, and evaluation of the effectiveness of conservation measures. However, broader utilisation of tracking technologies is needed. By leveraging the full potential of AT, managers can make more informed decisions to protect, restore, and sustainably manage European waters and creatures that live therein

Extreme value statistics for dynamical systems with noise

We study the distribution of maxima ( extreme value statistics ) for sequences of observables computed along orbits generated by random transformations. The underlying, deterministic, dynamical system can be regular or chaotic. In the former case, we show that, by perturbing rational or irrational rotations with additive noise, an extreme value law appears, regardless of the intensity of the noise, while unperturbed rotations do not admit such limiting distributions. In the case of deterministic chaotic dynamics, we will consider observables specially designed to study the recurrence properties in the neighbourhood of periodic points. Hence, the exponential limiting law for the distribution of maxima is modified by the presence of the extremal index , a positive parameter not larger than one, whose inverse gives the average size of the clusters of extreme events. The theory predicts that such a parameter is unitary when the system is perturbed randomly. We perform sophisticated numerical tests to assess how strong the impact of noise level is when finite time series are considered. We find agreement with the asymptotic theoretical results but also non-trivial behaviour in the finite range. In particular, our results suggest that, in many applications where finite datasets can be produced or analysed, one must be careful in assuming that the smoothing nature of noise prevails over the underlying deterministic dynamics

Oxidative stress and antioxidant defense in patients with chronic hepatitis C patients before and after pegylated interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin therapy

BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress could play a role in pathogenesis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The aim of our study is to determine oxidant/antioxidant status of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), and the effect of pegylated interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin combination therapy on oxidative stress. METHODS: Nineteen patients with chronic HCV infection and 28 healthy controls were included in the study. In control and patient groups, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, erythrocyte malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, erythrocyte CuZn-superoxide dismutase (SOD), erythrocyte glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities were measured. After pegylated interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin combination therapy for 48 weeks, these parameters were measured again in the patient group. RESULTS: Serum MDA levels increased significantly in CHC patients (n:19), before the treatment when compared with healthy subjects (n:28) 9.28 ± 1.61, 4.20 ± 1.47 nmol/ml, p < 0.001 respectively. MDA concentration decreased significantly (p < 0.001) after the treatment as well as ALT, AST activity, in erythrocytes of these patients. Average antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase) were significantly lower in erythrocytes of patients with CHC before treatment compared with the control group (both, p < 0.001). Chronic Hepatitis C patients after pegylated interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin therapy showed values of SOD, GSH-Px were significantly higher than pretreatment levels (both, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our results show that patients with chronic HCV infection are under the influence of oxidative stress associated with lower levels of antioxidant enzymes. These impairments return to level of healthy controls after pegylated interferon alfa-2b plus ribavirin combination therapy of CHC patients. Although interferon and ribavirin are not antioxidants, their antiviral capacity might reduce viral load, and inflammation, and perhaps through this mechanism might reduce virus-induced oxidative stress

The links between health-related behaviors and life satisfaction in elderly individuals who prefer institutional living

BACKGROUND: Life satisfaction among residents of institutions is becoming an important issue in a rapidly aging population. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the links between life satisfaction and health-related behaviors amongst functionally independent elderly people who prefer institutional living in İstanbul, Turkey. METHODS: The socio-demographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, leisure-time activities and fall histories of 133 residents of an institution in Istanbul were assessed by a structured questionnaire during face-to-face interviews. A validated life-satisfaction index questionnaire (LSI-A) was completed. RESULTS: The mean age of the study group was 73.9 ± 8.0 (range 60–90 years). Within the group, 22.6% had never married and 14.3% had university degrees. The majority (71.4%) were in the low income bracket. The overall mean LSI-A score was 20.3 ± 5.9. Participants who declared moderate/high income levels had a significantly higher mean LSI-A score than those in the low-income bracket (p = 0.009). Multivariate analysis of the data suggested that leisure-time activities and participation in regular physical activities are significant predictors of LSI-A scores (R(2): 0.112; p = 0.005 and p = 0.02, respectively). CONCLUSION: The findings imply that regular physical activity and leisure-time activities are significantly related to life satisfaction among residents in institutions. Participation in physical activity and leisure-time activity programs may help to improve the life satisfaction of elderly people living in institutions

A case report of Morvan syndrome

PMID = 3151746

UTA Method for the Consulting Firm Selection Problem

The market conditions change due to the introduction of new products, unforseen demand fluctuations, rapid change of the life cycle of products and profit margins. Therefore, companies try to survive in a competitive environment by making their operational decisions strategically and systematically. Selection problems play an important role among these decisions. In the literature there are many robust MCDM (Multi Criteria Decision Making) methods that consider the conflicting selection criteria and alternatives. In this paper the consulting firm selection problem is solved with UTA (UTility Additive) method which is one of the MCDM methods. This method considers preference of the decision makers on alternatives and uses linear programming model to obtain a utility function having a minimum deviation from the preferences. In order to illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the method, a real case study is presented

Selection of vineyard location for a winery with fuzzy AHP and consistent fuzzy linguistic preference relations

Nowadays making decisions quickly and selecting the best alternative are very important for companies to gain competitive advantage in a complex environment. In this manner vineyard location selection problem of a winery is considered in this paper. Because this selection affects the quality of wine as the grape quality affects the wine quality directly. Selection of vineyard location is a multi-criteria decision problem and the conventional methods for selection problems are inadequate for dealing with the imprecise or vague nature of linguistic assessments. To overcome this difficulty, fuzzy multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are proposed. This paper attempts to solve the vineyard location selection problem by adopting two methods: fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (fuzzy AHP) and consistent fuzzy linguistic preference relations. The proposed methods have been applied to a vineyard location selection problem of a winery in Denizli, Turkey. After determining the criteria and alternatives that affect the vineyard location decisions, these methods are used to solve the problem and results are presented. The similarities and differences of two methods are also discussed. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd