2,299 research outputs found

    Integration of theoretical and the empirical deformations by KALMAN-Filtering in the North Anatolia Fault Zone

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    International audienceEarthquakes occur in regions with intense seismic activities and cause life and property losses. Predicting earthquakes, identifying deformations and decreasing earthquake effects have been major subjects for scientists, engineers, and authorities. One of the theories used for identifying location changes during an earthquake is the elastic half-space model. Recently, the Global Navigation Satellite System has also been used for the same purpose. In this work, the deformations caused by the earthquake across the Marmara Region on 17 August 1999 are determined by theoretical and empirical methods. The data retrieved from the half elastic-space model and GPS measurements were filtered with the Kalman filter technique. The difference between the half elastic-space model and GPS measurements increases in the area close to the fault zone. The study results showed that the fault line is actually not a line but an area within the earthquake region which can be called a deformation zone. To increase the efficiency of the Kalman filter, differences between the theoretical and empirical models were modeled using the Kriging technique. Using the theoretical model which was calibrated by the Kriging griding, forecast values were retrieved for deformations occurred across the earthquake region after the earthquake

    The role of desire thinking in the problematic use of social networking sites among adults.

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    The problematic use of social networking sites (SNS) is associated with several psychiatric disorders. This behavior closely resembles addiction in terms of neurological basis and behavioral patterns. Nevertheless, successful intervention strategies and the etiology of problematic SNS use are not yet thoroughly investigated. We aimed to study whether desire thinking is associated with problematic SNS use among adults when controlling for some confounders, including boredom, affect, and impulsivity. With the help of convenience sampling, we enrolled 546 Turkish adults in this study to whom we administered a sociodemographic form, the Social Media Addiction Scale (SMAS), the Leisure Boredom Scale (LBS), the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and the Desire Thinking Questionnaire (DTQ). To explore the association between the variables, we performed Pearson correlational and hierarchical regression analyses. The results showed that higher scores on two sub-dimensions of desire thinking, namely verbal perseveration and imaginal prefiguration, were associated with higher scores on problematic SNS use after we controlled for boredom, affect, and impulsivity. This study demonstrates that desire thinking may play a role in problematic SNS use among adults. We recommend targeting desire thinking as a potential area in treatments which may help alleviate problematic SNS use. [Abstract copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

    Autologous anti-SOX2 antibody responses reflect intensity but not frequency of antigen expression in small cell lung cancer

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    Background: Anti-SOX2 antibody responses are observed in about 10 to 20% of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether such responses reflect a particular pattern of SOX2 protein expression in the tumor and whether this pattern associates with clinical outcome. Methods. Paraffin embedded tumor tissues, obtained from SCLC patients who had no evidence of paraneoplastic autoimmune degeneration, were evaluated for SOX2 expression by immunohistochemistry for both intensity and extent of staining. Sera from the same patients were tested for autologous antibodies against recombinant SOX2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Correlates between overall survival and various clinical parameters including SOX2 staining and serology were determined. Results: SOX2 protein expression was observed in tumor tissue in 89% of patients. Seventeen patients (29%) were seropositive for SOX2 antibodies and, in contrast to SOX2 staining, the presence of antibody correlated with limited disease stage (p = 0.05). SOX2 seropositivity showed a significant association with the intensity of SOX2 staining in the tumor (p = 0.02) but not with the frequency of SOX2 expressing cells. Conclusion: Anti-SOX2 antibodies associate with better prognosis (limited stage disease) while SOX2 protein expression does not; similar to reports from some earlier studies. Our data provides an explanation for this seemingly contrasting data for the first time as SOX2 antibodies can be observed in patients whose tumors contain relatively few but strongly staining cells, thus supporting the possible presence of active immune-surveillance and immune-editing targeting SOX2 protein in this tumor type. © 2014 Atakan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

    Coronary arterial anomalies in a large group of patients undergoing coronary angiography in southeast Turkey

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    Background: The prevalence of coronary artery anomalies (CAA) are reportedbetween 0.6–1.3% in the literature. CAA are usually asymptomatic incidental findings, but they may deteriorate coronary circulation, cause symptoms andlead to sudden cardiac death; especially in young athletes. Since interventionalprocedures are increasing rapidly for treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD) inthe modern era, comprehensive understanding of CAA is becoming progressively critical element in dealing with CAD.Materials and methods: We reviewed the database of the Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory of Sani Konukoglu University Hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey. All patientswho were subjected to coronary angiography from 1998 to 2006 were included.Results: Among 53,655 coronary angiographies performed, CAA were foundin 653 patients (incidence of 1.21%); 590 (90.3%) patients had anomalies oforigin and distribution and 63 (11.7%) had coronary fistulae. Separate origins ofleft anterior descending (LAD) and left circumflex (LCX) coronary artery from theleft sinus of Valsalva was the most common anomaly (64.1%). Coronary arteriesbranching from anomalous aortic origin was the second most common anomaly(16.5%). Right coronary artery (RCA) originating from left sinus of Valsalva or leftmain coronary artery (LMCA) was observed in 55 (8.4%) patients, LCX arising fromRCA or right sinus of Valsalva (RSV) was seen in 52 (7.9%) patients and LMCA orLAD originating from RSV was seen in 14 (0.2%) patients. There were 16 (2.45%) patients with single coronary artery and 1 (0.15%) patient with LMCA originating from pulmonary artery.Conclusions: The incidence and the pattern of CAA in our patient population were similar with previous studies. Angiographic recognition of these vessels is importantbecause of their clinical significance and importance in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty or cardiac surgery

    Thin-walled commercially pure titanium structures: laser powder bed fusion process parameter optimization

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    Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process parameters can be changeable depending on the part geometry due to thermal conductivity differences. The number of studies on the process parameter development for commercial pure titanium (Cp-Ti) with the L-PBF process is also quite limited in the literature. The aim of this study is to present a comprehensive process development for the production of Cp-Ti bulk and thin structures with the L-PBF technology. In the first phase, the right process parameters, including scan speed, laser power, hatch distance, and layer thickness, were identified with prismatic specimens with thin walls so that the obtained parameters could be used for both bulky sections and thin features such as lattice structures. The process parameters were varied to change the volumetric energy density from 19 to 208 J/mm3 among 80 different parameter sets. Parameter sets having a Volumetric Energy Density (VED) value between 32 J/mm3 and 47 J/mm3 gave almost fully dense Cp-Ti parts while the laser power was set to 200–250 W and the scan speed was used as 1000–1400 mm/s. Finally, Vickers hardness and tensile tests were applied to highly dense Cp-Ti parts. This study involving investigating the effect of process parameters on a wide range demonstrated that L-PBF is a favorable manufacturing technology for Cp-Ti parts with almost full density and good mechanical properties as well as good dimensional accuracy even on thin geometries. Moreover, the results show that combining parameters into a single one, i.e., VED, is not a proper way to optimize the process parameters since increasing laser power or decreasing the scan speed may alter the results, although VED is increased in both manners

    Autologous anti-SOX2 antibody responses reflect intensity but not frequency of antigen expression in small cell lung cancer

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    Cataloged from PDF version of article.Background: Anti-SOX2 antibody responses are observed in about 10 to 20% of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether such responses reflect a particular pattern of SOX2 protein expression in the tumor and whether this pattern associates with clinical outcome. Methods. Paraffin embedded tumor tissues, obtained from SCLC patients who had no evidence of paraneoplastic autoimmune degeneration, were evaluated for SOX2 expression by immunohistochemistry for both intensity and extent of staining. Sera from the same patients were tested for autologous antibodies against recombinant SOX2 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Correlates between overall survival and various clinical parameters including SOX2 staining and serology were determined. Results: SOX2 protein expression was observed in tumor tissue in 89% of patients. Seventeen patients (29%) were seropositive for SOX2 antibodies and, in contrast to SOX2 staining, the presence of antibody correlated with limited disease stage (p = 0.05). SOX2 seropositivity showed a significant association with the intensity of SOX2 staining in the tumor (p = 0.02) but not with the frequency of SOX2 expressing cells. Conclusion: Anti-SOX2 antibodies associate with better prognosis (limited stage disease) while SOX2 protein expression does not; similar to reports from some earlier studies. Our data provides an explanation for this seemingly contrasting data for the first time as SOX2 antibodies can be observed in patients whose tumors contain relatively few but strongly staining cells, thus supporting the possible presence of active immune-surveillance and immune-editing targeting SOX2 protein in this tumor type. © 2014 Atakan et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

    Determination of periodic deformation from InSAR results using the FFT time series analysis method in Gediz Graben

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    Permanent Scatterers (PS) point velocities obtained by the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) method are generally determined using the linear regression model, which ignores periodic and seasonal effects. In this study, software was developed that can detect periodic effects by applying fast Fourier transformation (FFT) time series analysis to InSAR results. Using the FFT time series analysis, the periodic components of the surface movements at the PS points were determined, and then the annual velocity values free from periodic effects were obtained. The study area was chosen as the Gediz Graben, a tectonically active region where aseismic surface deformations have been observed in recent years. As a result, using the developed method, seasonal effects were successfully determined with the InSAR method at the PS points in the study area with a period of 384 days and an average amplitude of 19 mm. In addition, groundwater level changes of a water well in the region were modeled, and 0.93 correlation coefficient values were calculated between seasonal InSAR displacement values and water level changes. Thus, using the developed methodology, the relationship between the tectonic movement in the Gediz Graben in Turkey and the seasonal movements and the change in the groundwater level was determined

    Radiation background with the CMS RPCs at the LHC

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    The Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) are employed in the CMS Experiment at the LHC as dedicated trigger system both in the barrel and in the endcap. This article presents results of the radiation background measurements performed with the 2011 and 2012 proton-proton collision data collected by CMS. Emphasis is given to the measurements of the background distribution inside the RPCs. The expected background rates during the future running of the LHC are estimated both from extrapolated measurements and from simulation
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