Electroweak Interactions: Experimental Facts and Theoretical Foundation

Although intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important problem that threatens women’s health, very few studies focus on the victim—perpetrator relationship or examine this relationship across Turkey. The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of femicide cases in Turkey and to describe the socio-demographic, clinical, forensic, and criminological characteristics of femicide victims and offenders. This study analysed 162 femicide cases that occurred in 12 cities in Turkey from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2010. Eighty women were killed by their partners (classified as intimate partner femicide, IPF), and 81 women were killed by one of their relatives, friends, or strangers (classified as non-intimate partner femicide, non-IPF). According to our results, the typical IPF victim is of child-bearing age, does not have a paid job, is married or divorced, is killed in a domestic setting due to injuries to the thorax or abdomen produced by an edged/pointed weapon or firearm, and is possibly a victim of overkill. The typical IPF perpetrator is close to his victim’s age, has a paid job, has no mental disability, owns a gun, and has threatened his partner or ex-partner previously because of jealousy/infidelity/honour or separation. The typical non-IPF victim is very similar to the IPF victim; however, her marital status can be single, married or divorced, and she is commonly killed by a relative. The surveillance and screening of femicide and IPV is an important step when analysing and attempting to prevent femicide. Second, the training and sensitization of health professionals are important. Moreover, health staff should be encouraged to participate in advocacy interventions. Third, gun ownership must be brought under control. © 2017 Toprak, Ersoy. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Contribution of heme oxygenase 2 to blood pressure regulation in response to swimming exercise and detraining in spontaneously hypertensive rats

Background: We aimed to determine the effects of exercise followed by detraining on systolic blood pressure (SBP), heme oxygenase 2 (HO-2) expression, and carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) concentration in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) to explain the role of carbon monoxide (CO) in this process. Material/Methods: Animals were randomized into exercised and detrained groups. Corresponding sedentary rats were grouped as Time 1–2. Swimming of 60 min/5 days/week for 10 weeks was applied. Detraining rats discontinued training for an additional 5 weeks. Gene and protein expressions were determined by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry. Results: Aorta HO-2 histological scores (HSCORE) of hypertensive rats were lower, while SBP was higher. Swimming caused enhancement of HO-2 immunostaining in aorta endothelium and adventitia of SHR. Exercise induced elevation of blood COHb index in SHR. Synchronous BP lowering effect of exercise was observed. HO-2 mRNA expression, HSCORE, and blood COHb index were unaltered during detraining, while SBP was still low in SHR. Conclusions: CO synthesized by HO-2 at least partly plays a role in SBP regulation in the SHR-and BP-lowering effect of exercise. Regular exercise with short-term pauses may be advised to both hypertensives and individuals who are at risk. © Med Sci Monit

Esterase variation in Turkish white-toothed shrews (Crocidura): Record of a trimeric esterase

This study focuses on esterase variation of the genus Crocidura in Turkey. A total of 248 white-toothed shrews were analyzed by means of cellulose acetate gel electrophoresis. Liver tissue and alfa naphthyl acetate were used to investigate esterase variation in Turkish white-toothed shrews. A different esterase banding pattern was found in one Crocidura individual. This phenotype had four anodally migrated bands on cellulose acetate gel. The Crocidura individual displaying the given phenotype was identified as Crocidura suaveolens. The different esterase banding pattern observed in this study is considered to be a result of the trimeric structure of esterase in the lesser white-toothed shrew (Crocidura suaveolens)

Guidance in author instructions of hematology and oncology journals: A cross sectional and longitudinal study.

The debate about the value of biomedical publications led to recommendations for improving reporting quality. It is unclear to what extent these recommendations have been endorsed by journals. We analyzed whether specific recommendations were included in author instructions, which journal characteristics were associated with their endorsement, how endorsement of the domains changed and whether endorsement was associated with change of impact factor between 2010 and 2015. We considered two study samples consisting of "Hematology" and "Oncology" journals of the Journal Citation Report 2008 and 2014, respectively. We extracted information regarding endorsement of the (1) recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, of (2) reporting guidelines, (3) requirement for trial registration and (4) disclosure of conflicts of interest. Data extraction was done by reading the author instructions before conducting a text search with keywords. We calculated a global generalized linear mixed effects model for endorsement of each of the four domains followed by separate multivariable logistic regression models and a longitudinal analysis. We defined endorsement as the author instructions saying that they approve the use of the recommendations. In 2015, the ICMJE recommendations were mentioned in author instructions of 156 journals (67.5%). CONSORT was referred to by 77 journals (33.3%); MOOSE, PRISMA, STARD and STROBE were referred to by less than 15% of journals. There were 99 journals (42.9%) that recommended or required trial registration, 211 (91.3%) required authors to disclose conflicts of interest. Journal impact factor, journal start year and geographical region were positively associated with endorsement of any of the four domains. The overall endorsement of all domains increased between 2010 and 2015. The endorsement of any domain in 2010 seemed to be associated with an increased impact factor in 2014. Hematology and oncology journals endorse major recommendations to various degrees. Endorsement is increasing slowly over time and might be positively associated with the journals' impact factor

Anthropometric measurements of the orbita and gender prediction with three-dimensional computed tomography images

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate the orbital anthropometric variations in the normal population using three-dimensional computed tomography (3D-CT) images and to define the effects of age and gender on orbital anthropometry.Materials and methods: Three-dimensional orbita CT of 280 patients, obtained for various reasons, were retrospectively evaluated in 772-bed referral and tertiary-care hospital between April 2011 and June 2012. Using 3D images, orbital width, height, biorbital-interorbital diameter and orbital index were measured. Measurements were obtained comparing right and left sides and male to female. The relation of the results with age and gender was analysed.Results: Right orbit was found to be wider than left (p < 0.0001). Male patients had wider (p < 0.0001) and higher (p = 0.0001) orbits. Right orbital index was found to be smaller than the left one (p = 0.005). No differences were found between the genders in terms of right and left orbital indexes (p > 0.05). Biorbital (p < 0.0001) and interorbital (p = 0.01) widths were found to be higher in males. There was no relation between the age change and the parameters defined (p > 0.05).Conclusions: No relation was found between age and orbital measurements. It was concluded that orbital images obtained with 3D-CT may be used as a method for gender evaluation

Study of the power performance of gaN based HEMTs with varying field plate lengths

In this paper, we report the optimum power performance of GaN based high-electron-mobility-transistors (HEMTs) on SiC substrate with the field plates of various dimensions. The AlGaN/GaN HEMTs are fabricated with 0.6 µm gate length, 3 µm drain-source space. And also, the field plate structures with the lengths of 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7 µm have been fabricated on these HEMTs. Great enhancement in radio frequency (RF) output power density was achieved with acceptable compromise in small signal gain. A HEMT of 0.5 µm field plate length and 800 µm gate width is biased under 35 V, at 3 dB gain compression, The results showed that we obtained a continuous wave output power of 36.2 dBm (5.2 W/mm), power-added efficiency (PAE) of 33% and a small signal gain of 11.4 dB from this device. We also could achieve a continuous wave output power of 37.2 dBm (5.2 W/mm), poweradded efficiency (PAE) of 33.7% and a small gain of 10.7 dB from another HEMT with 0.5 µm field plate length and 1000 µm gate width. These results were obtained at 8 GHz without using a via hole technology. The results seem very stunning in this respect. © 2015, North Atlantic University Union. All rights reserved

Structural field plate length optimization for high power applications

In this work, we report GaN high-electron-mobility-transistors (HEMTs) on SiC with field plates of various dimensions for optimum performance. 0.6 μm gate length, 3 μm drain source space AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with field-plate lengths of 0.2, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 μm have been fabricated. Great enhancement in radio frequency (RF) output power density was achieved with acceptable compromise in small signal gain. When biased at 35 V, at 3 dB gain compression, a continuous wave output power density of 5.2 W/mm, power-added efficiency (PAE) of 33% and small gain of 11.4 dB were obtained at 8 GHz using device with 0.5 μm field plate length and 800 μm gate width without using via hole technology. © 2014 European Microwave Association-EUMA

Does growing atmospheric CO2 explain increasing carbon sink in a boreal coniferous forest?

The terrestrial net ecosystem productivity (NEP) has increased during the past three decades, but the mechanisms responsible are still unclear. We analyzed 17 years (2001-2017) of eddy-covariance measurements of NEP, evapotranspiration (ET) and light and water use efficiency from a boreal coniferous forest in Southern Finland for trends and inter-annual variability (IAV). The forest was a mean annual carbon sink (252 [+/- 42] gC m-2a-1), and NEP increased at rate +6.4-7.0 gC m-2a-1 (or ca. +2.5% a-1) during the period. This was attributed to the increasing gross-primary productivity GPP and occurred without detectable change in ET. The start of annual carbon uptake period was advanced by 0.7 d a-1, and increase in GPP and NEP outside the main growing season contributed ca. one-third and one-fourth of the annual trend, respectively. Meteorological factors were responsible for the IAV of fluxes but did not explain the long-term trends. The growing season GPP trend was strongest in ample light during the peak growing season. Using a multi-layer ecosystem model, we showed that direct CO2 fertilization effect diminishes when moving from leaf to ecosystem, and only 30-40% of the observed ecosystem GPP increase could be attributed to CO2. The increasing trend in leaf-area index (LAI), stimulated by forest thinning in 2002, was the main driver of the enhanced GPP and NEP of the mid-rotation managed forest. It also compensated for the decrease of mean leaf stomatal conductance with increasing CO2 and LAI, explaining the apparent proportionality between observed GPP and CO2 trends. The results emphasize that attributing trends to their physical and physiological drivers is challenged by strong IAV, and uncertainty of LAI and species composition changes due to the dynamic flux footprint. The results enlighten the underlying mechanisms responsible for the increasing terrestrial carbon uptake in the boreal zone.Peer reviewe

Perspective of turkish medicine students on cancer, cancer treatments, palliative care, and oncologists (ares study): A study of the palliative care working committee of the turkish oncology group (TOG)

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death all over the World (Rahib et al. in Cancer Res 74(11):2913–2921, 2014; Silbermann et al. in Ann Oncol 23(Suppl 3):iii15–iii28, 2012). It is crucial to diagnose this disease early by effective screening methods and also it is very important to acknowledge the community on various aspects of this disease such as the treatment methods and palliative care. Not only the oncologists but every medical doctor should be educated well in dealing with cancer patients. Previous studies suggested various opinions on the level of oncology education in medical schools (Pavlidis et al. in Ann Oncol 16(5):840–841, 2005). In this study, the perspectives of medical students on cancer, its treatment, palliative care, and the oncologists were analyzed in relation to their educational status. A multicenter survey analysis was performed on a total of 4224 medical school students that accepted to enter this study in Turkey. After the questions about the demographical characteristics of the students, their perspectives on the definition, diagnosis, screening, and treatment methods of cancer and their way of understanding metastatic disease as well as palliative care were analyzed. The questionnaire includes questions with answers and a scoring system of Likert type 5 (absolutely disagree = 1, completely agree = 5). In the last part of the questionnaire, there were some words to detect what the words “cancer” and “oncologist” meant for the students. The participant students were analyzed in two study groups; “group 1” (n = 1.255) were phases I and II students that had never attended an oncology lesson, and “group 2” (n = 2.969) were phases III to VI students that had attended oncology lessons in the medical school. SPSS v17 was used for the database and statistical analyses. A value of p < 0.05 was noted as statistically significant. Group 1 defined cancer as a contagious disease (p = 0.00025), they believed that early diagnosis was never possible (p = 0.042), all people with a diagnosis of cancer would certainly die (p = 0.044), and chemotherapy was not successful in a metastatic disease (p = 0.003) as compared to group 2. The rate of the students that believed gastric cancer screening was a part of the national screening policy was significantly more in group 1 than in group 2 (p = 0.00014). Group 2 had a higher anxiety level for themselves or their family members to become a cancer patient. Most of the students in both groups defined medical oncologists as warriors (57% in group 1 and 40% in group 2; p = 0.097), and cancer was reminding them of “death” (54% in group 1 and 48% in group 2; p = 0.102). This study suggested that oncology education was useful for the students’ understanding of cancer and related issues; however, the level of oncology education should be improved in medical schools in Turkey. This would be helpful for medical doctors to cope with many aspects of cancer as a major health care problem in this country. © 2018, American Association for Cancer Education

Seismic Response of Underground Lifeline Systems

This paper presents and discusses the recent developments related to seismic performance and assessment of buried pipelines. The experience from the performance of pipelines during last earthquakes provided invaluable information and lead to new developments in the analysis and technologies. Especially, the pipeline performance during Canterbury earthquake sequence in New Zealand is taken as a case study here. The data collected for the earthquake sequence are unprecedented in size and detail, involving ground motion recordings from scores of seismograph stations, high resolution light detection and ranging (LiDAR) measurements of vertical and lateral movements after each event, and detailed repair records for thousands of km of underground pipelines with coordinates for the location of each repair. One of the important learnings from the recent earthquakes is that some earthquake resistant design and technologies proved to be working. This provides a motivation to increase international exchange and cooperation on earthquake resistant technologies. Another observation is that preventive maintenance is important to reduce the pipeline damage risk from seismic and other hazards. To increase the applicability and sustainability, seismic improvements should be incorporated into the pipe replacement and asset management programs as part of the preventive maintenance concept. However, it is also important to put in the most proper pipeline from the start as replacing or retrofitting the pipelines later requires substantial investment. In this respect, seismic considerations should be taken into account properly in the design phase