Kadınlarda ağırlık döngüsünün metabolik etkilerinin belirlenmesi

Bu çalışma, kadınlarda ağırlık döngüsü sıklığı ve şiddetinin belirlenerek metabolik etkilerinin değerlendirilmesi amacıyla, Mayıs 2016-Eylül 2016 tarihleri arasında Başkent Üniversitesi Hastanesi Ümitköy Polikliniği Endokrin Bölümü’ne başvuran, 25–45 yaş arasındaki 60 kadın birey üzerinde yürütülmüştür. Bireylerin kişisel özellikleri, genel ve beslenme alışkanlıkları, duygu durumları ile ağırlık değişimlerine ilişkin bilgileri saptamak için bir anket formu uygulanmıştır. Bireylerin beslenme durumları besin tüketim sıklığı ile saptanmıştır. Ağırlık değişimleri sonucunda, son 10 yıl içerisinde 2 kezden fazla 5 kg ve üzerinde ağırlık kaybı yaşayıp sonrasında tekrar geri kazanma ağırlık döngüsü olarak tanımlanmıştır. Çalışmaya katılan bireyler ağırlık döngüsü yaşayanlar (vaka grubu, n=20) ve ağırlık döngüsü yaşamayanlar (kontrol grubu, n=40) olmak üzere iki gruba ayrılmıştır. Vaka grubundaki bireylerin 6’sının (%30.0) hafif derecede ve 14’ünün (%70.0) ciddi derecede döngüye girdiği belirlenmiştir. Vaka ve kontrol grupları arasında vücut ağırlığı, beden kütle indeksi, bel çevresi, kalça çevresi, bel/kalça oranı, toplam vücut yağı, yağ dokusu kütlesi, yağsız doku kütlesi ve toplam vücut su kütlesi açısından istatistiksel olarak önemli fark bulunurken (p0.05). Gruplar arasında serum glukoz, total kolesterol, LDL-kolesterol, trigliserit, AST, ALT ve ürik asit değerleri açısından istatistiksel anlamlı bir ilişki saptanırken (p0.05). Ağırlık döngü dereceleri ve döngü sayısı ile biyokimyasal parametreler arasında istatistiksel açıdan önemli bir fark belirlenmemiştir (p>0.05). Beck depresyon ölçeğine göre gruplar arasında istatistiksel açıdan önemli bir ilişki saptanmış (p0.05). Gruplar arasında, günlük enerji, protein, bitkisel protein, yağ, karbonhidrat posa alım ortalaması açısından önemli bir fark saptanmıştır (p0.05). Sonuç olarak, ağırlık döngüsünün antropometrik ölçümler, biyokimyasal parametreler, beslenme ve duygu durumları üzerinde önemli bir etkisinin olduğu belirlenmiş, ancak döngü derecesinin etkinliği tam olarak saptanmamıştır. This study was conducted on 60 female subjects aged 25 – 45 years, who applied to Başkent University Hospital Ümitköy Policlinic Department of Endocrinology between May 2016 and September 2016 for the purpose of determining the frequency and severity of weight cycling in women and their metabolic effetcs. A questionnaire form was used to determine individual characteristics, general and nutritional habits, psychological status and information on weight changes. Nutritional status of the individuals was determined by the frequency of food consumption. As a result of weight changes, weight cycling have been defined intentionally lost two or more times at least 5 kg during the past 10 years and regained the weight. The subjects were divided into groups: those who have weight cycling (the case group, n=20) and do not have weight cycling (the control group, n=40). Of the individuals in the case group, 6 (30.0%) were mild cycler and 14 (70.0%) were severe cycler identified. Between the case and control groups, body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, waist / hip ratio, total body fat, fat mass, fat free mass and total body water mass were statistically significant (p0.05). Between the case and control groups, serum glucose, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, AST, ALT and uric acid levels a statistically significant relations (p0.05). No statistically significant difference was found when the relationship between weight cycling leveles and cycle numbers wew correlated with biochemical parametres (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant relationship between the Beck depression scale and the groups (p0.05). There was a significant between the groups in terms of daily mean energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate, vegetable protein and pulp intake (p0.05). As a result, weight cycle were determined to have a significant effect on anthropometric measurements, biochemical parameters, nutrition and psychological status, but the efficacy of weight cycling levels and numbers was no found

A new perspective on the competitiveness of nations

The capability of firms to survive and to have a competitive advantage in global markets depends on, amongst other things, the efficiency of public institutions, the excellence of educational, health and communications infrastructures, as well as on the political and economic stability of their home country. The measurement of competitiveness and strategy development is thus an important issue for policy-makers. Despite many attempts to provide objectivity in the development of measures of national competitiveness, there are inherently subjective judgments that involve, for example, how data sets are aggregated and importance weights are applied. Generally, either equal weighting is assumed in calculating a final index, or subjective weights are specified. The same problem also occurs in the subjective assignment of countries to different clusters. Developed as such, the value of these type indices may be questioned by users. The aim of this paper is to explore methodological transparency as a viable solution to problems created by existing aggregated indices. For this purpose, a methodology composed of three steps is proposed. To start, a hierarchical clustering analysis is used to assign countries to appropriate clusters. In current methods, country clustering is generally based on GDP. However, we suggest that GDP alone is insufficient for purposes of country clustering. In the proposed methodology, 178 criteria are used for this purpose. Next, relationships between the criteria and classification of the countries are determined using artificial neural networks (ANNs). ANN provides an objective method for determining the attribute/criteria weights, which are, for the most part, subjectively specified in existing methods. Finally, in our third step, the countries of interest are ranked based on weights generated in the previous step. Beyond the ranking of countries, the proposed methodology can also be used to identify those attributes that a given country should focus on in order to improve its position relative to other countries, i.e., to transition from its current cluster to the next higher one

Analysis of Cost and Schedule Variances in Construction Works with Artificial Intelligence Approaches: The Case of Turkey

Realistic estimation of construction cost is a vital issue for both successful planningand completion of every construction project. However, fluctuations in input prices due to the unexpected changes in factors like inflation and supply/demand balance make realistic costestimation very difficult to achieve. Thus, various estimation methods have been developedand these can be grouped as methods based on; statistics-probability analysis, comparison with similar projects and artificial intelligence techniques.Statistics-probability analysis is the most widely used method for construction costestimation in Turkey. Based on the so called method, Ministry of the Environment and Urbanism publishes and updates "Unit Costs of Construction" every year and the data is widely used for preliminary cost estimation by both the contractors and the developers.Meanwhile, methods based on artificial intelligence techniques are rarely used within the industry. Thus, the aim of this study has been to compare the estimation results obtained by using statistics-probability analysis and artificial intelligent techniques. In order to achieve this, construction cost data from 198 projects; completed between 2004-2010 in Izmir (the third largest city in Turkey) were used. Multi layer perceptron (MLP) and grid partitioning algorithm (GPA) were used to obtain estimation results and root mean square error (RMSE)and coefficient of determination (R2) were calculated for comparisons

Comparison of multi layer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF) for construction cost estimation: the case of Turkey

In Turkey, for the preliminary construction cost estimation, a notice, which is updated and published annu­ally by Turkish Ministry of the Environment and Urbanism, known as “unit area cost method” (UACM) is generally employed. However, it’s known that the costs obtained through this method in which only construction area is taken into consideration have significant differences from actual costs. The aim of this study is to compare the cost estimations obtained through “multi layer perceptron” (MLP) and “radial basis function” (RBF), which are commonly used artificial neural network (ANN) methods. The results of MLP and RBF were also compared with the results of UACM and the validity of UACM was interpreted. Dataobtained from 232 public construction projects, which completed between 2003 and 2011 in different regions of Turkey, were reviewed. Consequently, estimated costs obtained from RBF were found to be higher than the actual costs with a 0.28% variance, while the estimated costs obtained from MLP were higher than actual values with a 1.11% variance. The approximate costs obtained from UACM are higher than actual costs with a 28.73% variance. It was found that both ANN methods were showed better performance than the UACM but RBF was superior to MLP. First published online: 24 Aug 201

Psoriasis and 5HT-R2C Gene Polymorphism: Association between Clinical, Demographic and Therapeutic Parameters in the Turkish Population

We aimed to investigate the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promoter region of the 5-HT-R2C gene and stress-related disease psoriasis in the Turkish population. The putative association between the 5-HTR2C variant (rs6318 Cys23Ser allele) and patients with psoriasis was investigated. 100 patients with psoriasis and 100 age-sex matched, unrelated healthy subjects representing the control group were included in the study. The PCR-RFLP method was used for genotyping the 5-HTR2C variation. There was no statistically difference in terms of genotype distributions and allele frequencies between the control subjects and patients with psoriasis (P=0.360 and P=0.439, respectively). The comparison between the presence and absence of the 5-HTR2C gene rs6318 G allele within the determined clinical subsets resulted in a significant difference with regard to treatment methodology only when conventional therapy and one or more medical therapy was compared (P=0.021). This study is the first clinical study to investigate the association between 5-HTR2C polymorphism and psoriasis. The role of the 5-HTR2C gene should be examined with more parameters in a larger case series

Psoriasis and 5HT-R2C Gene Polymorphism: Association between Clinical, Demographic and Therapeutic Parameters in the Turkish Population

We aimed to investigate the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the promoter region of the 5-HT-R2C gene and stress-related disease psoriasis in the Turkish population. The putative association between the 5-HTR2C variant (rs6318 Cys23Ser allele) and patients with psoriasis was investigated. 100 patients with psoriasis and 100 age-sex matched, unrelated healthy subjects representing the control group were included in the study. The PCR-RFLP method was used for genotyping the 5-HTR2C variation. There was no statistically difference in terms of genotype distributions and allele frequencies between the control subjects and patients with psoriasis (P=0.360 and P=0.439, respectively). The comparison between the presence and absence of the 5-HTR2C gene rs6318 G allele within the determined clinical subsets resulted in a significant difference with regard to treatment methodology only when conventional therapy and one or more medical therapy was compared (P=0.021). This study is the first clinical study to investigate the association between 5-HTR2C polymorphism and psoriasis. The role of the 5-HTR2C gene should be examined with more parameters in a larger case series

RACK1 is an interaction partner of ATG5 and a novel regulator of autophagy

Autophagy is biological mechanism allowing recycling of long-lived proteins, abnormal protein aggregates, and damaged organelles under cellular stress conditions. Following sequestration in double- or multimembrane autophagic vesicles, the cargo is delivered to lysosomes for degradation. ATG5 is a key component of an E3-like ATG12-ATG5-ATG16 protein complex that catalyzes conjugation of the MAP1LC3 protein to lipids, thus controlling autophagic vesicle formation and expansion. Accumulating data indicate that ATG5 is a convergence point for autophagy regulation. Here, we describe the scaffold protein RACK1 (receptor activated C-kinase 1, GNB2L1) as a novel ATG5 interactor and an autophagy protein. Using several independent techniques, we showed that RACK1 interacted with ATG5. Importantly, classical autophagy inducers (starvation or mammalian target of rapamycin blockage) stimulated RACK1-ATG5 interaction. Knockdown of RACK1 or prevention of its binding to ATG5 using mutagenesis blocked autophagy activation. Therefore, the scaffold protein RACK1 is a new ATG5-interacting protein and an important and novel component of the autophagy pathways

The competitiveness of nations and implications for human development

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity, its aim being healthier, longer, and fuller lives. Thus, if the competitiveness of a nation is properly managed, enhanced human welfare should be the key expected consequence. The research described here explores the relationship between the competitiveness of a nation and its implications for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated initially using data envelopment analysis. In this stage, global competitiveness indicators were taken as input variables with human development index indicators as output variables. Subsequently, an artificial neural network analysis was conducted to identify those factors having the greatest impact on efficiency scores

Assessment of the requisites of microbiology based infectious disease training under the pressure of consultation needs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Training of infectious disease (ID) specialists is structured on classical clinical microbiology training in Turkey and ID specialists work as clinical microbiologists at the same time. Hence, this study aimed to determine the clinical skills and knowledge required by clinical microbiologists.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was carried out between June 1, 2010 and September 15, 2010 in 32 ID departments in Turkey. Only patients hospitalized and followed up in the ID departments between January-June 2010 who required consultation with other disciplines were included.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 605 patients undergoing 1343 consultations were included, with pulmonology, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, dermatology, haematology, and endocrinology being the most frequent consultation specialties. The consultation patterns were quite similar and were not affected by either the nature of infections or the critical clinical status of ID patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of our study show that certain internal medicine subdisciplines such as pulmonology, neurology and dermatology appear to be the principal clinical requisites in the training of ID specialists, rather than internal medicine as a whole.</p