Role of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms in patients with rosacea: a case-control study

Background Vitamin D has significant effects on the immune system and thereby on the pathogenesis of rosacea. However, there is a lack of information on the vitamin D status and vitamin D receptors (VDRs) of patients with rosacea. Aim To evaluate the role of vitamin D in rosacea susceptibility. Methods A case-control study was conducted, enrolling patients with rosacea and healthy controls (HCs). Five VDR gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (Cdx2, FokI, ApaI, BsmI and TaqI) and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D-3 [25(OH)D-3] levels were compared between patients and HCs. Results The study enrolled 60 patients (M/F: 14/46) and 60 age- and sex-matched HCs (M/F: 14/46). Age (mean +/- SD) was 48 +/- 11 years for both groups. The serum 25(OH)D-3 levels (median +/- interquartile range) were higher in patients with rosacea (12.9 +/- 6.8 ng/mL) than in HCs (10.5 +/- 3.7 ng/mL) (P < 0.001). Subjects with high serum 25(OH)D-3 levels had a 1.36-fold increased risk of rosacea (95% CI 1.17-1.58). Heterozygous and mutant ApaI polymorphisms increased rosacea risk by 5.26-fold (95% CI 1.51-18.35) and 3.69-fold (95% CI 1.19-11.48), respectively, whereas mutant TaqI polymorphisms decreased the risk by 4.69 times (95% CI 1.37-16.67). Heterozygosity for Cdx2 alleles increased rosacea risk, whereas wildtype ApaI and mutant TaqI alleles decreased it. Conclusions The present study suggests that an increase in vitamin D levels may contribute to the development of rosacea. ApaI and TaqI polymorphisms, and heterozygous Cdx2, wildtype ApaI and mutant TaqI alleles were significantly associated with rosacea. These results indicate a possible role of vitamin D and VDR pathways in the pathogenesis of rosacea, although causality could not be assessed.Turkish Society of Dermatology, Ankara [2015/112]This study was supported by The Turkish Society of Dermatology, Ankara (Grant no: 2015/112)

Apical Root Resorption: A Prospective Radiographic Study of Maxillary Incisors

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of apical root resorption in maxillary incisors during the initial stages of active orthodontic treatment and to test the hypothesis that root resorption increases with the progress of the treatment. Methods: The study sample consisted of 80 teeth of 20 patients (14 female, 6 male) with a mean age of 14.9±2.8 years. Root resorption was determined with standardized digitized periapical radiographs. All the periapical radiographs were obtained at the beginning of orthodontic treatment (T0) and 3 months (T1), 6 months (T2) and 9 months (T3) after the beginning of the treatment by a paralleling device. They were digitalized as 600 dpi with a flatbed scanner and analyzed by software for image analysis at 400x magnification utilizing a personal computer. Results: All of the 4 maxillary incisors had an increasing amount of resorption during the 9-month period. The amount of root resorption between the time intervals was statistically significant (P<.05). Conclusions: Root resorption of maxillary incisors can be detected in the early stages of orthodontic treatment and appears to be related to treatment duration. According to 9-month evaluation period, apical root resorption is of limited clinical significance for the average orthodontic patient.PubMe

Teachers' views regarding the use of rubrics in the evaluation of prosodic reading skills

Bu araştırmada prozodik okuma becerisinin değerlendirilmesinde öğretmenlerin dereceli puanlama anahtarı (DPA) kullanma durumları ve DPA kullanma deneyimlerine ilişkin görüşlerini ortaya koymak amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma temel nitel araştırma deseniyle yürütülmüş, çalışma grubunun belirlenmesinde amaçlı örnekleme yöntemlerinden ölçüt örnekleme tekniği kullanılmıştır. Araştırmaya dört Türkçe, üç sınıf öğretmeni olmak üzere toplamda yedi öğretmen katılmıştır. Araştırma verileri yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme aracılığıyla toplanmış ve veriler içerik analizi tekniğiyle analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma bulgularında DPA’nın olumlu ve olumsuz yönlerine ilişkin “psikometrik özellikler”, “değerlendirme özellikleri” ve “uygulama” olarak üç tema; “öğrenciyi tanıma, objektiflik, dönüt, değerlendirme kolaylığı ve uygulama zorluğu” olmak üzere de beş kategoriye ulaşılmıştır. Araştırma bulgularından elde edilen sonuçlar her iki branşta da öğretmenlerin objektiflik, öğrenciyi tanıma, öğrenciye ve öğretmene geri bildirim sağlama yönüyle DPA’yı faydalı bulduklarını ancak uygulama zorluğu nedeniyle DPA kullanmayı tercih etmediklerini göstermiştir. Öğretmenler uygulama zorluğuna gerekçe olarak puanlamanın zaman almasını, kalabalık sınıflarda uygulamanın zor olmasını ve onlar için ayrıca iş yükü çıkararak kâğıt israfına neden olmasını göstermişlerdir.This study aims to reveal teachers' experiences of using rubrics and their perceptions on these experiences in evaluating prosodic reading skills. The research was carried out with a qualitative research design, and criterion sampling technique, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was used in determining the study group. Seven teachers in total, four of them Turkish and three of them classroom teachers, participated in the study. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews and the data were analyzed using the content analysis technique. In the findings, three themes ("psychometric properties", "evaluation features" and "implementation") related to the positive and negative aspects of the rubric and five categories (“familiarization to the students, objectivity, feedback, ease of evaluation, and difficulty of implementation”) were reached. The results obtained from the research findings showed that in both branches, teachers found the rubric useful in terms of objectivity, familiarization to the students, and providing feedback to the student and teacher, but they did not prefer to use rubrics due to the difficulty of implementation. As reasons for the difficulty of implementation, teachers stated that scoring with the rubric takes time, it is difficult to implement in crowded classrooms, and also causes a waste of paper by creating a workload for them

Learning platform for smoking cessation project: From begining to date

Although 35% of the adults in Turkey are current smokers, the number of trained physicians and smoking cessation (SC) clinics are not enough to meet the demand. Aim: This national project aimed to create the necessary infrastructure for providing SC therapy all-around the country and to train physicians in this topic. This project was run by Turkish Thoracic Society Tobacco Working Group and supported by a grant from Pfizer Foundation. Methods: For this purpose, an organization network including field training teams was planned. The training materials were prepared and standardized. A website of the project including a wide e-learning platform was created (www.sigarabirakmadaogrenmezemini.org). Results: Firstly, a central training program was planned. Forty volunteers from all regions of Turkey were participated to this program. Afterwards, field training programs were started to perform by these trainers. From the beginning field training sessions were performed in 11 cities with more than 300 participants. The project website was visited by 10.369 visitors and 518 participants completed e-training module since April 2011. Conclusion: The SÖZ project enabled a training ground that will last for years; a professional website and a trainer staff to generalize the program. Through this project, the integration of SC intervention in all health service steps will be provided, the number of SC clinics in Turkey will increase, and in future smoking rate will reduce in our country

Crizotinib efficacy and safety in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring MET alterations: A real-life data of Turkish Oncology Group

Crizotinib is a multikinase inhibitor, effective in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring mesenchymal-epidermal transition (MET) alterations. Although small prospective studies showed efficacy and safety of crizotinib in NSCLC with MET alterations, there is limited real-life data. Aim of this study is to investigate real-life efficacy and safety of crizotinib in patients with advanced NSCLC harboring MET alterations. This was a retrospective, multicenter (17 centers) study of Turkish Oncology Group. Patients' demographic, histological data, treatment, response rates, survival outcomes, and toxicity data were collected. Outcomes were presented for the study population and compared between MET alteration types. Total of 62 patients were included with a median age of 58.5 (range, 26-78). Major histological type was adenocarcinoma, and 3 patients (4.8%) had sarcomatoid component. The most common MET analyzing method was next generation sequencing (90.3%). MET amplification and mutation frequencies were 53.2% (n = 33) and 46.8% (n = 29), respectively. Overall response rate and disease control rate were 56.5% and 74.2% in whole study population, respectively. Median progression free survival (PFS) was 7.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.8-10.5), and median overall survival (OS) was 18.7 months (95% CI: 13.7-23.7), regardless of treatment line. Median PFS was 6.1 months (95% CI: 5.6-6.4) for patients with MET amplification, whereas 14.3 months (95% CI: 6.7-21.7) for patients with MET mutation (P = .217). Median PFS was significantly longer in patients who have never smoked (P = .040), have good performance score (P < .001), and responded to the treatment (P < .001). OS was significantly longer in patients with MET mutation (25.6 months, 95% CI: 15.9-35.3) compared to the patients with MET amplification (11.0 months; 95% CI: 5.2-16.8) (P = .049). In never-smokers, median OS was longer than smoker patients (25.6 months [95% CI: 11.8-39.3] vs 16.5 months [95% CI: 9.3-23.6]; P = .049). The most common adverse effects were fatigue (50%), peripheral edema (21%), nausea (29%) and diarrhea (19.4%). Grade 3 or 4 adverse effects were observed in 6.5% of the patients. This real-life data confirms efficacy and safety of crizotinib in the treatment of advanced NSCLC harboring MET alteration

Akut ve kronik hepatitli hastalarda hepatit B virüsü x geninin yapısı

Hepatit B virüs enfeksiyonu, kronik hepatit, siroz ve hepatosellüler karsinoma gibi tedavisi güç hastalıklara yol açmaktadır. HBV tedavisinde en önemli amaç hepatosellüler karsinomanın gelişmesini önlemektir. HBV DNA'nın 465 nükleotidden oluşan X gen bölgesi virüsün replikasyonu ve ekspresyonu için çok önemlidir. Çünkü, X proteini HBV genlerini transaktive etmekte ve kor promoter, enhancer II, DR1 ile DR2 bu bölgede yer almaktadır. Dolayısıyla burada ortaya çıkan mutasyonlar söz konusu yapıları da etkilemektedir. X protein bölgesinin transkripsiyon faktörü olarak davranmasının yanında transkripsiyonel faktörlerle de bazı reaksiyonlara girebildiği saptanmıştır. X proteininin tümör supresör gen ürününün (p53) işlevini bozduğu anlaşılmıştır. Bu durum HBV ile ilişkili hepatokarsinogenez sürecinin ilk aşamasında X proteininin etkili olabileceğini düşündürmektedir. Bu çalışmada akut ve kronik HBV enfeksiyonlu hastalar seçilerek X genine ait baz dizilerindeki olası değişikliklerin saptanması amaçlanmıştır. Bu saptamayla, kronik ve akut HBV enfeksiyonlu hastalardaki X gen mutasyonları ve varsa kronik HBV enfeksiyonlu hastalardaki ortak X gen mutasyonlarının belirlenmesi hedeflenmiştir. Çalışılan 27 hastanın X gen bölgesi bu bölgeye ait primerlerle PZR sonucu çoğaltılamamıştır. X ve kor bölgesini birlikte çoğaltmak amacıyla, bu bölgeye ait primerlerle yapılan PZR sonucunda ise sadece bir hasta örneğinde amplifikasyon görülmüştür. X ve kor bölgesi çoğaltılan hasta örneği kalıp olarak kullanılarak dizi analizi yapılmış ve üç defa tekrarlanan dizi analizleri sonucunda baz dizisi tam olarak saptanamamıştır. THE STRUCTURE OF HEPATITIS B VIRUS (HBV) X GENE IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE AND CHRONIC HBV INFECTION DISEASE Name-Surname: Pınar UYSAL Supervisor: Doç.Dr. S.Ayşe ÖZER Accepted at : 7.23.1999 Department: Medical Biology and Genetics Program: Master SUMMARY Hepatitis B virus can cause some infections like chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The most important aim at the treatment of HBV infection is to prevent the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. The X region of HBV DNA consists of 465 nucleotides and its coding protein transactivates HBV genes and core promoter, enhancer II, DR1, DR2 regions. Therefore, it is very important for replication and expression of virus genome. Thus, mutations which appear in this region can effect these processes. X protein itself can act as a transcription factor, on the other hand can interact with other transcription factors as well. It is known that, X protein interferes with the function of tumour suppressor gene product (p53). This may indicate that X protein has a role in the first step of hepatocarcinogenesis process related to HBV. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate X gene mutations -and possible common X gene mutations- in chronic and acute Hepatitis B patients. In the study, X region of HBV genome which were obtained from 27 acute and chronic Hepatitis B patients, could not be amplified by PCR using the primers specific to the regions. By using primers specific to X and core regions.amplification was succeeded in only one sample out of 27. Sequencing has been done and repeated three times using the X and core region amplificated patient sample as a template. As a result of this study nucleotide sequence could not be demostrated