Premarital screening of 466 Mediterranean women for serum ferritin, vitamin B12, and folate concentrations

Background/aim: Iron, folate, and vitamin B12 serum levels are closely related with dietary habits and have an essential role in the healthy development of a fetus. We aimed to investigate hemoglobin, ferritin, folate, and vitamin B12 levels in preconceptional women in an area where a plant-based diet referred to as Mediterranean cuisine is commonly used. Materials and methods: The study population included 466 women between the ages of 18 and 45 years admitted for thalassemia screening. Sociodemographic variables and history of menometrorrhagia, pica, and dietary habits were collected. Serum vitamin B12, folate, ferritin, and hemoglobin levels were measured. Ferritin of <12 μg/L, vitamin B12 of <200 pg/mL, and folate of <4 ng/mL were accepted as deficiencies. Hemoglobin level of <12 g/dL was classified as anemia. Results: Polymenorrhea was present in 11.7% and hypermenorrhea in 24.8% of women. Anemia was detected in 24.9% and thalassemia trait in 3.0% of women. Low ferritin levels were observed in 46.1%, vitamin B12 in 21.6%, and folate in 3.4% of women. In the group with low vitamin B12, decreased meat consumption was more prevalent (27.5% vs. 16.9%; P = 0.019). Conclusion: Vitamin B12 and iron are the main micronutrients depleted in our community. This necessitates implementing a public health program for women consuming a Mediterranean diet. © TÜBİTA

Circuit lengths of graphs for the Picard group

In this paper, we examine some properties of suborbital graphs for the Picard group. We obtain edge and circuit conditions, then propose a conjecture for the graph to be forest. This paper is an extension of some results in (Jones et al. in The Modular Group and Generalized Farey Graphs, pp. 316-338, 1991)

BLSM: A Bone-Level Skinned Model of the Human Mesh

We introduce BLSM, a bone-level skinned model of the human body mesh where bone scales are set prior to template synthesis, rather than the common, inverse practice. BLSM first sets bone lengths and joint angles to specify the skeleton, then specifies identity-specific surface variation, and finally bundles them together through linear blend skinning. We design these steps by constraining the joint angles to respect the kinematic constraints of the human body and by using accurate mesh convolution-based networks to capture identity-specific surface variation. We provide quantitative results on the problem of reconstructing a collection of 3D human scans, and show that we obtain improvements in reconstruction accuracy when comparing to a SMPL-type baseline. Our decoupled bone and shape representation also allows for out-of-box integration with standard graphics packages like Unity, facilitating full-body AR effects and image-driven character animation. Additional results and demos are available from the project webpage: http://arielai.com/blsm

Examination of inclinations of the spine at childhood and adolescence

Background: Spine is a column that consists of consecutively lined up vertebras. It includes medulla spinalis. It contributes the motions of head, neck and body. Spine is not a straight column. There is a convexity towards the front of the spine (lordosis) at cervical and lumbar areas in adults and a convexity towards the back of the spine (kyphosis) at thoracic and sacral spine areas.  Materials and methods: In this study, lateral magnetic resonance images of 731 children between 1 and 16 years of age were examined and their cervical lordosis, thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis angles were measured with Cobb method using ImageJ programme for every age group.  Results: The mean calculated cervical lordosis angles in 1–16-year-old children were found to be 20.51o ± 6.11o (minimum 17.96o ± 6.29o, maximum 23.50o ± ± 4.14o). It has been observed that cervical angle values decrease with age. The mean thoracic kyphosis angle measured was 28.71o ± 6.99o (minimum 24.55o ± ± 5.65o, maximum 30.44o ± 4.68o). Lumbar lordosis angle was 28.08o ± 7.39o (minimum 20.36o ± 6.59o, maximum 32.68o ± 6.03o). Thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis angle values increased with age. In our study, a statistical differ- ence was found in increasing thoracic kyphosis angle between 1-year-old group and 14-year-old group. Statistical difference was also found in decreasing cervical lordosis angle value between 1-year-old group and 16-year-old group. When we compare our study results with literature values, cervical lordosis values were similar, but lumbar lordosis values were lower.  Conclusions: In summary, we think that knowing sagittal plane inclinations of the spine developing in childhood and adolescence will contribute to earlier de- termination of pathologies. We also hope that it will contribute to clinical stages and other studies in this field.

Hamilton-Jacobi treatment of a non-relativistic particle on a curved space

In this paper a non-relativistic particle moving on a hypersurface in a curved space and the multidimensional rotator are investigated using the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism. The equivalence with the Dirac Hamiltonian formalism is demonstrated in both Cartesian and curvilinear coordinates. The energy spectrum of the multidimensional rotator is equal to that of a pure Laplace-Beltrami operator with no additional constant arising from the curvature of the sphere.Comment: 10 pages, LaTe

A Schwarz lemma for K\"ahler affine metrics and the canonical potential of a proper convex cone

This is an account of some aspects of the geometry of K\"ahler affine metrics based on considering them as smooth metric measure spaces and applying the comparison geometry of Bakry-Emery Ricci tensors. Such techniques yield a version for K\"ahler affine metrics of Yau's Schwarz lemma for volume forms. By a theorem of Cheng and Yau there is a canonical K\"ahler affine Einstein metric on a proper convex domain, and the Schwarz lemma gives a direct proof of its uniqueness up to homothety. The potential for this metric is a function canonically associated to the cone, characterized by the property that its level sets are hyperbolic affine spheres foliating the cone. It is shown that for an $n$-dimensional cone a rescaling of the canonical potential is an $n$-normal barrier function in the sense of interior point methods for conic programming. It is explained also how to construct from the canonical potential Monge-Amp\`ere metrics of both Riemannian and Lorentzian signatures, and a mean curvature zero conical Lagrangian submanifold of the flat para-K\"ahler space.Comment: Minor corrections. References adde

Multidisciplinary Researches in Cultural Heritage Studies: An Approach on Akkale Cistern in Erdemli, Mersin

Conservation, reinforcement and restoration of architectural heritage requires multidisciplinary approaches which should be organised in precise steps that are similar to those used in medical science. Architectural conservation decisions must rely on full understanding of the historical, material, structural, geological and environmental information related to the building and its setting. The aim of this paper is to discuss phases of a multidisciplinary approach applied to develop a conservation project for the ancient cistern building, located in Akkale archaeological site in Mersin (Turkey). Firstly, architectural description of the ancient cistern building in the light of current information revealed by archeological excavations is presented. Then, methods and technics conducted by each expert group are discussed explaining the main results obtained from each study. Finally, organization of multidisciplinary studies and results gained from each step are displayed through a flow chart diagram showing process of research and data from one phase to another to develop architectural conservation program

İnsan Kaynakları Yönetimi Uygulamalarının İşe Yabancılaşma Üzerindeki Etkisi: Sessizliğin ve Ayrımcılığın Düzenleyicilik Rolü1 The Moderated Moderation Role of Employee Silence and Discrimination on the Effect of Human Resource Management Practices on Work Alienation

İşletmelerde yürütülen insan kaynakları yönetimi uygulamalarının örgüt seviyesinde sonuçları yanında çalışan bireyler düzeyinde de bazı sonuçları görülmektedir. Bu araştırmada insan kaynakları yönetimi uygulamalarının çalışanların işlerine yabancılaşmaları üzerindeki etkisi ve bu etki üzerinde ayrımcılık algısının ve çalışan sessizliğinin düzenleyicilik rolü incelenmiştir. Bu amaçla anket yöntemiyle bir işyerinde çalışan 281 kişiden veri toplanmış ve bu veriler kullanılarak araştırma hipotezlerinin sınandığı nicel analizler yapılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda insan kaynakları yönetimi uygulamalarına yönelik çalışanların algısının artmasının işe yabancılaşmalarını azaltan anlamlı bir etkisinin olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca bu etkinin ayrımcılık algısı ve sessizlik düzeyi yüksek çalışanlarda anlamlı olmadığı, ayrımcılık ve sessizliğin düzenleyicilik rolünün olduğu bulgularına ulaşılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgular yazın bağlamında tartışılmıştır. Human resource management practices in businesses have some consequences at the level of working individuals in addition to organization level results. In this research, moderated moderation role of discrimination perception and employee silence on the effect of human resource management practices on alienation of employees were examined. For this purpose, the data were collected from 281 people working in a firm by using questionnaire method and quantitative analyzes were conducted by using these data to test the research hypotheses. As a result of the research, it was found that the increase in the perception of the employees towards the human resources management practices has a significant effect which reduces the alienation to work. Moreover, it was found that this effect was not significant when discrimination perception and silence of employees were at high level. This finding showed that Employee Silence and Discrimination have a Moderated Moderation Role on the effect of human resource management practices on work alienation. The findings were discussed in the context of the literature