A Strategic Management Maturity Model for Innovation

Even though strategic management is highly critical for all types of organizations, only a few maturity models have been proposed in the business literature for the area of strategic management activities. This article updates previous studies and presents a new conceptual model for assessing the maturity of strategic management in any organization. The Strategic Management Maturity Model for Innovation (S3M-i) is composed of six maturity levels with seven dimensions. The main contribution of the S3M-i is to put innovation into the agenda of strategic management. The main objective of this study is to propose a model to align innovation with business strategies. This article suggests that innovation (new breakthrough products/services and business models) is the only way of creating sustainable growth, and strategy studies cannot ignore this aspect. Maturity models should embrace innovation to respond to the dynamic business environment and rapidly changing customer behaviours

Quality Of Sleep And Factors Affecting Sleep Quality İn Hospitalized Patients In The Orthopedics And Traumatology Clinic

Purpose: In this study, our purpose was to determine the sleep quality and the factors affecting sleep quality of the hospitalized patients orthopedics and traumatology clinic. Methods: This study was conducted as a descriptive study in a hospital between March 30 and June 16, 2022. The sample of the study consisted of 200 patients hospitalized in the orthopedics and traumatology clinic. The data of the study were collected through face-to-face interviews with the patients using the ‘’Sociodemographic and Descriptive Characteristics Questionnaire’’ and the ‘’Richard-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire’’. Results: The average Richard-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire scores of the patients were determined to be 43.33±28.31. While there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) observed between the gender, preoperative or postoperative status, presence of noise, room lighting, room crowding, attached the body medical devices, treatment interventions during sleep hours, and Richard-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire score averages of the patients; a statistically significant difference was found in the Richard-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire score averages based on pain and medical diagnosis (p<0.05). It was found that the variation in Richard-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire scores attributed to patient’s pain and diagnosis variables is 8 (R20.082). An increase of one unit in the presence of pain led to a decrease of 8.571 unit in sleep quality and the sleep quality of patients diagnosed with coxartrosis decreased by 12.298 units. Conclusions: The patients' sleep quality was found to be below the moderate level, and it was observed that sleep quality was significantly affected by pain and diagnosis.Acıbadem Üniversitesi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergis

Investigation of the effect of exercise on high school students' psychological resilience levels in covid-19 pandemic

Bu araştırmanın amacı, COVID-19 pandemi sürecinde lise öğrencilerinin psikolojik sağlamlık düzeylerini belirlemek, cinsiyet, egzersiz yapma durumları ve haftalık egzersiz sıklığı açısından incelemektir. Araştırmanın örneklemini 116 (Xyaş=16.00±0.99) kadın, 107 erkek (Xyaş=16.18±1.06) olmak üzere toplam 223 (Xyaş=16.09±0.81) lise öğrencisi oluşturmaktadır. Veriler “Psikolojik Sağlamlık Ölçeği” ile toplanmıştır. Verilerin analizinde t testi, tek yönlü ANOVA testi ve pearson korelasyon analizi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın bulguları, kadın katılımcıların psikolojik sağlamlık ölçeği puanının erkek katılımcılardan anlamlı düzeyde daha yüksek olduğunu ortaya koymaktadır (p<.01). Katılımcıların egzersiz yapma durumları bakımından psikolojik sağlamlık ölçeği puanının egzersiz yapan katılımcılar lehine anlamlı bulunmuştur (p<.01). Egzersiz yapma tercihlerine göre katılımcıların psikolojik sağlamlık ölçeği puanı arasında bir fark saptanmamıştır (p> .01). Ayrıca egzersiz yapan katılımcıların haftalık egzersiz yapma sıklıkları ile psikolojik sağlamlık ölçeği puanları arasında pozitif bir korelasyon bulunmuştur (p<.01). Sonuç olarak, COVID-19 sosyal izolasyon sürecinde egzersiz yapan katılımcıların psikolojik sağlamlık düzeylerinin egzersiz yapmayanlara göre daha yüksek olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu gibi durumlarda egzersiz yapmanın yararları konusunda toplumun farkındalığının artırılması için çalışmaların yapılmasına ihtiyaç vardır.The aim of the study is to determine the psychological resilience levels of high school students in the COVID-19 pandemic, to examine in terms of gender, exercise status and weekly exercise frequency. The sample of the research consists of 223 (X-age=16.09±0.81) high school students, 116 women (X-age=16.00±0.99) and 107 men (x-age=16.18±1.06). The data were collected with the Psychological Resilience Scale. In the analysis of the data, t test, one way ANOVA test and pearson correlation analysis were used. The results of the study reveal that the psychological resilience scale score of female participants is significantly higher than male participants (p <.01). It was found that there was a significant difference in psychological resilience scale score in terms of participants' exercise status in favor of exercising participants (p <.01). According to the exercise preferences, there was no difference between the participants' psychological resilience scale score (p> .01). In addition, a positive correlation was found between the participants' weekly exercise frequency and psychological resilience scale scores (p <.01). As a result, it was revealed that the participants who exercise in the COVID-19 pandemic have higher levels of psychological resilience than those who do not exercise. In such cases, studies are needed to raise public awareness about the benefits of exercising

A semiotic approach to themes used in political advertisements: Analysis of the Republican People's Party's "Sana Söz" advertising film in the 2023 presidential election

Siyasal reklamlar, seçim dönemlerinde yoğunlukla tercih edilen önemli bir siyasal iletişim faaliyeti olup siyasal aktörler tarafından sıklıkla kullanılmaktadır. Seçmen davranışını pekiştirmek ya da değiştirmek için kullanılan siyasal reklamlarda siyasal aktörlerin vaatleri, projeleri ve mesajları kamuoyunun beğenisine sunulmakta; rakiplere yönelik eleştirel söylemler geliştirilmektedir. Bu nedenle siyasal reklamlar, seçim dönemlerinde yoğun bir biçimde kullanılmaktadır. Dijital teknolojilerin ve özellikle sosyal medyanın yaygınlaşmasıyla birlikte yükselen imaj temelli bir dünyada siyasal reklamların önemi daha çok artmıştır çünkü sosyal medya, siyasal aktörlerin daha geniş kitlelere ulaşmasına imkân sağlamış ve seçim dönemlerine bağlı kalmadan siyasal kampanya yürütmeye olanak tanımıştır. Siyasal reklamların, seçmenlerin oy verme tercihlerine etki ettiğini ortaya koyan pek çok bilimsel araştırma bulunmaktadır. Kampanya yürütücüleri tarafından, kamuoyunun beklentileri, istekleri ve öncelikleri göz önüne alınarak hazırlanan temalar; görsel ve dilsel öğelerle süslenerek sunulmaktadır. Bu nedenle siyasal reklamların, hangi temaları ön plana çıkararak seçmenlerin tutum ve davranışlarına etki ettiği sorusu da cevap beklemektedir. Bu çalışma da siyasal reklamlarda kullanılan temaların neler olduğu sorusuna bilimsel bir cevap aramak amacıyla kurgulanmıştır. Bu amaçla, 2023 Cumhurbaşkanlığı seçimlerinde CHP tarafından kullanılan “Sana Söz” isimli reklam kampanyası örneklem olarak belirlenmiş; tematik analiz yöntemi ve göstergebilimsel analiz yöntemi kullanılarak çözümleme yapılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgulara göre rakibe yönelik olumsuz tutumları içeren temalara daha az yer verildiği saptanmıştır.Political advertisements are an important political communication activity that is mostly preferred during election periods and is frequently used by political actors. Promises, projects and messages of political actors are presented to the public in political advertisements used to reinforce or change voter behavior; critical discourses towards competitors are developed. For this reason, political advertising is widely used during election periods. With the spread of digital technologies and especially social media, the importance of political advertisements has increased in an image-based world. Because social media has enabled political actors to reach wider audiences and social media has made it possible to conduct political campaigns without depending on election periods. The themes prepared by the campaign organizers taking into account the expectations, wishes and priorities of the public are presented by decorating with visual and linguistic elements. There are many scientific studies that show that political ads affect the voting preferences of voters. For this reason, the question of how political advertisements affect the attitudes and behaviors of voters by highlighting which themes awaits an answer. This study has been prepared in order to search for a scientific answer to the question of what are the themes used in political advertisements. For this purpose, the advertising campaign named “Sana Söz” used by the CHP in the 2023 Presidential elections has been determined as an sampling. The analysis was made using thematic analysis method and semiotic analysis method. According to the findings, it was determined that the themes including negative attitudes towards the opponent were given less place

Evaluation of common NLRP3 Q703K variant in pediatric patients with autoinflammatory disease: CAPS and PFAPA

Background. Gain-of-function mutations of the NLR family pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) gene have been implicated in autoinflammatory diseases. The NLRP3 Q703K variant is a common variant associated with Cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes (CAPS) and periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis and cervical adenitis (PFAPA) syndrome. However, the genotype-phenotype correlation between NLRP3 Q703K variant, CAPS and PFAPA is unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of the NLRP3 Q703K variant in patients with and without autoinflammatory disease and characterize the phenotype in only Q703K variant positive patients. Methods. A retrospective analysis of 639 patients with autoinflammatory symptoms was conducted. Patients underwent next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel analysis of 16 genes, including NLRP3. For the 68 patients carrying the only Q703K variant, their clinical and demographic information was evaluated. Genetic data from 1461 patients without autoinflammatory symptoms were used as the control group. Results. Of our 639 autoinflammatory symptomatic patients, the Q703K mutation was detected in 68 (5.3% allele frequency). Heterozygous mutations were detected in 141 patients without autoinflammatory symptoms (4.8% allele frequency, p=0.4887). Of the patients with variant in Q703K, 10 patients were diagnosed with CAPS , 7 patients were diagnosed with PFAPA and the remaining 39 were diagnosed with undefined systemic autoinflammatory disease (uSAID) Conclusions. The Q703K variant, which is seen with similar frequency in the control and autoinflammatory groups, is also of higher prevalence in patients with mild CAPS symptoms and PFAPA syndrome. This variant, together with other undetected genetic variants or epigenetic modifications, may be responsible for the corresponding phenotype. As such, it is essential for clinicians to evaluate their patients using both genetic and clinical evaluations

Atriyal Fibrilasyon Tespiti için Evrişimli Sinir Ağı Tabanlı Bir Derin Ağ Modeli

Atriyal Fibrilasyon (AFib), yaşlılarda ve hatta herhangi bir kalp hastalığı olmayan gençlerde bile görülebilen yaygın bir kalp ritim bozukluğudur. AFib; inme, kalp yetmezliği ve ani ölümlere neden olabilir. Tüm bu mevcut ve gelecekteki endişeler, dünya çapında AFib'in erken tespitinde önemli önlemlerin alınmasını gerektirir. Elektrokardiyografik (EKG) dalga formları, AFib gibi anormal kalp ritimlerini saptamak için en güvenilir yöntem olarak kabul edilmektedir. Ancak EKG sinyallerinin karmaşıklığı ve doğrusal olmaması nedeniyle bu sinyalleri manuel olarak analiz etmek zordur. Bunun yanı sıra, EKG sinyallerinin yorumlanması kişiye özgü ve uzmanlar arasında farklılık gösterebilmektedir. Bu nedenle otomatik ve güvenilir bir AFib algılama için bilgisayar destekli teşhis (BDT) sistemlerinin kullanımı önemlidir. BDT sistemleri, EKG sinyallerinin değerlendirilmesinin objektif ve doğru olmasını sağlayacak potansiyele sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, derin öğrenme yapısı kullanılarak EKG sinyallerinden otomatik AFib tespiti gerçekleştirilmiştir. Derin öğrenme algoritmalarından evrişimli sinir ağı (ESA) mimarisinin AFib sınıflandırma probleminde kullanımı için çalışma kapsamında derin bir ağ modeli tasarlanmıştır. Kullanılan verisetinde normal sinüs ritimlerinin (SR) yanısıra AFib ve Atriyal Flutter (AFL) aritmileri bulunmaktadır. AFib ve AFL sınıfları birleştirilerek model çıkışında SR ve AFib ayırımının otomatik yapılması sağlanmıştır. Önerilen model, 2222 SR ve 2218 AFib tanısı alan kişilere ait her biri 5000 örneğe sahip EKG sinyali içeren veri seti üzerinde uygulanmıştır. Çalışma kapsamında hazırlanan ESA modeli, test aşamasında sırasıyla %95.09 hassasiyet, %97.27 özgüllük ve %97.26 kesinlik değerlerine ulaşmıştır. Modelin test verileri üzerindeki doğruluk oranı %96.17 olarak elde edilmiştir

Determination of Pipe Diameters for Pressurized Irrigation Systems Using Linear Programming and Artificial Neural Networks

Pressurized irrigation systems are widespread among other alternatives in Mediterranean countries. Since the initial investment costs of pressurized irrigation systems are quite high, it is crucial to determine design parameters such as pipe diameter. Most of the current optimization techniques for pipe diameter selection are based on linear, non-linear, and dynamic programming models. The ultimate aim of these techniques is to produce solutions to problems with less cost and computation time. In this study, a novel approach for determining pipe diameter was proposedusing Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) as an alternative to existing models. For this purpose, three pressurized irrigation systems were investigated. Different ANN architectures were created and tested using hydrant level parameters of the irrigation systems, such as irrigated area per hydrant, hydrant discharge, pipe length, and hydrant elevation. Different training algorithms, transfer functions, and hidden neuron numbers were tried to determine the best ANN model for each irrigation system. Using multilayer feed-forward ANN architecture, the highest coefficients of determination were found to be 0.97, 0.93, and 0.83 for irrigation systems investigated. It was concluded that pipe diameters could be determined by using artificial neural networks in the planning of pressurized irrigation systems

Comparison of Preoperative Imaging and FNAB Results with Postoperative Pathology Results in Patients Undergoing AUS/FLUS

Objective: Thyroid nodules are observed in 3-7% of the general population, of which 4-8% are detected by palpation and 10-41% by thyroid ultrasonography (USG). In this study, we aimed to make early surgical or follow-up decisions in patients with thyroid atypia of undetermined significance (AUS)/follicular lesion of undetermined significance based on demographic and clinical characteristics, sonographic findings, and laboratory tests. Methods: Patients over the age of 18 years who were diagnosed with AUS and operated between August 2016 and August 2022 were included in the study. Patients under 18 years of age, those with missing data in the hospital automation system, and those with repeat fine-needle aspiration biopsy were excluded from the study. Results: Sonographic features of malignant and benign cases were compared. In malignant cases, the diameter of the dominant nodule was smaller, which was significant in terms of malignancy. Multicentricity, edge irregularity, and presence of cervical lymph nodes on USG and American Thyroid Association high-risk cases were found to be significant regarding malignancy. “Taller than wide (TTW)” appearance on sonographic images of nodules was observed more frequently in malignant cases. Conclusion: In regression analysis with age, gender, dominant nodule diameter, multicentricity, TTW shape, presence of calcification, presence of sonographic cervical lymph node, presence of lymphocytic thyroiditis in the parenchyma in the final pathology, and edge irregularity, the parameters TTW shape, presence of cervical lymph node, and presence of lymphocytic thyroiditis in the parenchyma were significant in favor of malignancy

Survey of Approaches and Techniques for Security Verification of Computer Systems

This paper surveys the landscape of security verification approaches and techniques for computer systems at various levels: from a software-application level all the way to the physical hardware level. Different existing projects are compared, based on the tools used and security aspects being examined. Since many systems require both hardware and software components to work together to provide the system\u27s promised security protections, it is not sufficient to verify just the software levels or just the hardware levels in a mutually exclusive fashion. This survey especially highlights system levels that are verified by the different existing projects and presents to the readers the state of the art in hardware and software system security verification. Few approaches come close to providing full-system verification, and there is still much room for improvement

May ischemia modified albumin be a predictor in diagnosis of contrast induced nephropathy?

Aim: “Ischemia modified albumin” (IMA) was investigated as a possible biomarker in several diseases such as vascular disorders. We aimed to reveal the possible value of IMA in predicting the development of contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) after coronary angiography in patients with stable angina pectoris.Material and Methods: 106 patients underwent coronary angiography with a diagnosis of stable angina pectoris were included in our study. Basic demographic and clinical findings and laboratory values were recorded and analyzed. Serum creatinine (SCre) levels were also measured 48 hours after coronary angiography and recorded. Amount of contrast agent (CA) given during coronary angiography was recorded. The patients were divided into 2 groups: CIN positive and CIN negative groups.Results: CIN was developed in 14 patients (13%); and IMA levels were similar in CIN positive and negative groups (p>0.05). SCre (both measurements before and after CA administration) was not correlated with IMA levels. There was no association between drug usage and development of CIN (p>0.05). Comorbidities were not associated with the development of CIN (p>0.05) with the exception of hypertension (HT). Presence of hypertension (p=0.0393) and female gender (p=0.0199) was associated with development of CIN. Mean age was 61.3 and 52.3 in CIN positive and negative groups, respectively (p>0.05).Conclusion: Any specific biomarker indicating CIN is not available yet. Most frequently used marker is the measurement of SCre 24- 48 hours after administration of CA. We found IMA levels not to be a predictor for the development of CIN. Further investigations will clearly determine the importance of IMA as a biomarker in renal failure developed after CA administration