The effects of baseline heart rate recovery normality and exercise training protocol on heart rate recovery in patients with heart failure

Objective: It is unclear which exercise training protocol yields superior heart rate recovery (HRR) improvement in heart failure (HF) patients. Whether baseline HRR normality plays a role in the improvement is unknown. We hypothesized that an exercise training protocol and baseline HRR normality would be factors in altering HRR in HF patients. Methods: In this prospective, randomized, controlled and 3 group parallel study, 41 stable HF patients were randomly assigned to 3-timesweekly training sessions for 12 weeks, consisting of i) 30 minutes of interval training (IT) (n=17, 63.7±8.8 years old) versus ii) 30 minutes of continuous training (CT) (n=13, 59.6±6.8 years old) versus iii) no training (CON) (n=11, 60.6±9.9 years old). Each patient had cardiopulmonary exercise testing before and after the training program. Maximum heart rates attained during the test and heart rates at 1 and 2 min (HRR1 and HRR2) during the recovery phase were recorded. Paired samples t-test or Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for comparisons before and after training. One-way ANOVA or Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis was used for comparisons among groups. Results: HRR1 was unchanged after training. HRR2 improved in the IT group after training, and post-training HRR2 values were significantly faster in the IT group than in controls. Both HRR1 and HRR2 was significantly faster, irrespective of exercise protocol in patients with abnormal baseline values after training. Conclusion: HRR1 did not improve after training. HRR2 improved only in the IT group. Both HRRs in patients with abnormal baseline values improved after both exercise protocols. IT might be superior to CT in improving HRR2. Baseline HRR might play a role in its response to exercise. © 2015 by Turkish Society of Cardiology

Anti-proliferative activity of silver nanoparticles

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Turkey : Has it Changed and to What Extent?

This study analyses the impact of exchange rates on domestic prices in Turkey. We seek to demonstrate the variations (if any) in the exchange rate pass-through across different exchange rate regimes, identify the determinants of this change, and characterize the degree and extent of pass-through across different sub-sectors. Our empirical results reveal that the pass-through of exchange rates to domestic prices has declined in the post-2001 period in comparison with the earlier episodes –thanks to a decline in the “indexation” behavior. These findings suggest that switching to floating exchange rate regime and implementing an ambitious disinflation policy have contributed, to a large extent, to the reduction in the pass-through. Nevertheless, the impact of exchange rate on inflation, especially in the traded good is still notable, pointing out that the effect of nominal exchange rate movement on relative prices have increased in the float period.Exchange rate pass-through, Time-varying parameters, Seemingly unrelated regressions, Disinflation, Floating exchange rate regime

Enhanced Genotoxicity of Silver Nanoparticles in DNA Repair Deficient Mammalian Cells

Silver nanoparticles (Ag-np) have been used in medicine and commercially due to their anti-microbial properties. Therapeutic potentials of these nanoparticles are being explored extensively despite the lack of information on their mechanism of action at molecular and cellular level. Here, we have investigated the DNA damage response and repair following Ag-np treatment in mammalian cells. Studies have shown that Ag-np exerts genotoxicity through double-strand breaks (DSBs). DNA-PKcs, the catalytic subunit of DNA dependent protein kinase, is an important caretaker of the genome which is known to be the main player mediating Non-homologous End-Joining (NHEJ) repair pathway. We hypothesize that DNA-PKcs is responsible for the repair of Ag-np induced DNA damage. In vitro studies have been carried out to investigate both cytotoxicity and genotoxicity induced by Ag-np in normal human cells, DNA-PKcs proficient, and deficient mammalian cells. Chemical inhibition of DNA-PKcs activity with NU7026, an ATP-competitive inhibitor of DNA-PKcs, has been performed to further validate the role of DNA-PKcs in this model. Our results suggest that Ag-np induced more prominent dose-dependent decrease in cell viability in DNA-PKcs deficient or inhibited cells. The deficiency or inhibition of DNA-PKcs renders the cells with higher susceptibility to DNA damage and genome instability which in turn contributed to greater cell cycle arrest/cell death. These findings support the fact that DNA-PKcs is involved in the repair of Ag-np induced genotoxicity and NHEJ repair pathway and DNA-PKcs particularly is activated to safeguard the genome upon Ag-np exposure

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

Predictive Genomics: A Post-genomic Integrated Approach to Analyse Biological Signatures of Radiation Exposure

The ultimate objective of radiation research is to link human diseases with the altered gene expression that underlie them and the exposure type and level that caused them. However, this has remained a daunting task for radiation biologists to indent genomic signatures of radiation exposures. Transcriptomic analysis of the cells can reveal the biochemical or biological mechanisms affected by radiation exposures. Predictive genomics has revolutionised how researchers can study the molecular basis of adverse effects of exposure to ionising radiation. It is expected that the new field will find efficient and high-throughput means to delineate mechanisms of action, risk assessment, identify and understand basic mechanisms that are critical to disease progression, and predict dose levels of radiation exposure. Previously, we have shown that cells responding to environmental toxicants through biological networks that are engaged in the regulation of molecular functions such as DNA repair and oxidative stress. To illustrate radiation genomics as an effective tool in biological dosimetry, an overview has been provided of some of the current radiation genomics landscapes as well as potential future systems to integrate the results of radiation response profiling across multiple biological levels in to a broad consensus picture. Predictive genomics represents a promising approach to high-throughput radiation biodosimetry.Defence Science Journal, 2011, 61(2), pp.133-137, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.61.83

An experimental study of ZigBee for body sensor networks

We present an experimental performance evaluation of ZigBee networks in the context of data-intensive body sensor networks (BSNs). IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee devices were mainly developed for use in wireless sensors network (WSN) applications; however, due to characteristics such as low power and small form factor, they are also being widely used in BSN applications, making it necessary to evaluate their suitability in this context. The delivery ratio and end-to-end delay were evaluated, under contention, for both star and tree topologies. The reliability of the ZigBee network in a star topology without hidden nodes was very good (delivery ratio close to 100%), provided the acknowledgement mechanism was enabled. On the other hand, the performance in a tree topology was degraded due to router overload and the activation of the route maintenance protocol triggered by periods of high traffic load. The effect of the devices’ clock drift and hidden nodes on the reliability of the star network was modeled and validated through experimental tests. In these tests, the worst-case delivery ratio when the acknowledgment is used decreased to 90% with two sensor nodes, while for the non-acknowledged mode the result was of 13%. These results show that a mechanism for distributing the nodes’ traffic over the time is required to avoid BSN performance degradation caused by router overload, clock drift and hidden node issues.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologi

From 16th Century to 21th Century Sheik Yahya Efendi Lodge Complex

Tasavvuf düşüncesi ile birlikte gelişen tarikatlara zamanla duyulan ihtiyaç sonucu tekkeler (tarikat yapıları) ortaya çıkmıştır. Özellikle Osmanlı Devleti’nin kuruluş döneminde toplumun çeşitli ihtiyaçlarını karşılamak üzere ortaya çıkan ve devletin gelişiminde oldukça etkili olan tekke ve tarikatlar, Cumhuriyet Dönemine gelindiğinde işlevsel görevlerini yitirdikleri düşüncesiyle kaldırılmışlardır. Osmanlı Döneminde önemli değişiklikler geçirerek Cumhuriyet Dönemine ulaşan çoğu tekkelerin kapatılması neticesinde bu yapılardan bazıları yok olmuş, bazıları onarılarak ve köklü değişiklikler geçirerek günümüze ulaşmıştır. Günümüzde cami olarak kullanılan Şeyh Yahya Efendi Tevhidhanesi’nin bir parçası olduğu Şeyh Yahya Efendi Külliyesi’nin (Tekkesi’nin) kuruluşundan bugüne kadar geçirdiği fiziksel değişiklikler ve tarihsel süreç, eldeki veriler elverdiği ölçüde incelenerek ortaya konmaya çalışılmıştır. Yazılı ve görsel malzemelerden (eski-yeni fotoğraf ve rölövelerden) yararlanılarak külliye yapılarının geçirmiş olduğu değişiklikler yanında günümüzdeki mimari durumları ele alınarak tanımlanmıştır.With the development of Islamic sufism, dervish orders increased in time. Eventually with the need of space for social activities, the dervish lodges and complexes emerged. In the Ottoman time, dervish lodges were very effective establishments. During the constitution of the Turkish Republic, these lodges which had become degenerated were closed. In time, some of the buildings demolished, others have undergone restorations and were partially preserved. Sheik Yahya Efendi Lodge Complex at issue, is studied with a historical aspect, the building complex is tried to be defined by the use of scarce archive records and survey drawings