The importance of socio-demographic indicators in regional disparities in turkey, 1990-1994

The aim of this study is to test the relative importance of the socio-demographic versus economic variables in discriminating the inter-regional differences in Turkey in 1990-94. Our findings show that the "socio-demographic" variables are much more significant than the "economic" variables. Among the socio-demographic variables, especially those variables related with the fertility and the size of household, and the female education such as the "female literacy ratio" and "female schooling ratio in high school", are the most effective variables rather than the economic variables, in the explanation of the differences between the regions in Turkey. Moreover, among the economic variables, the variables such as the "ratio of non-agricultural active population" are the more significant than the "GDP per capita" which is widely used as an ultimate indicator of socio-economic development. In this study, discriminant and factor analyses, and logistic regression are applied in total of five different methods. The tests are carried out for the seven regions of Turkey as defined by the State Institute of Statistics. Subsequently the analyses are repeated by combining these seven regions into three regions and two regions. Our above stated findings were always consistent in each of these tests. Our data sources are the various publications of State Institute of Statistics (SIS) and State Planning Organization (SPO). The regional data are the unweighted arithmetic mean of the respective provinces. Key words: Regional disparity, Socio-demographic variables, Economic variables, Discriminant anlysis, Logistic regression, and Factor analysis.

Development and validation of new SSR markers from expressed regions in the garlic genome

Only a limited number of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers is available for the genome of garlic (Allium sativum L.) despite the fact that SSR markers have become one of the most preferred DNA marker systems. To develop new SSR markers for the garlic genome, garlic expressed sequence tags (ESTs) at the publicly available GarlicEST database were screened for SSR motifs and a total of 132 SSR motifs were identified. Primer pairs were designed for 50 SSR motifs and 24 of these primer pairs were selected as SSR markers based on their consistent amplification patterns and polymorphisms. In addition, two SSR markers were developed from the sequences of garlic cDNA-AFLP fragments. The use of 26 EST-SSR markers for the assessment of genetic relationship was tested using 31 garlic genotypes. Twenty six EST-SSR markers amplified 130 polymorphic DNA fragments and the number of polymorphic alleles per SSR marker ranged from 2 to 13 with an average of 5 alleles. Observed heterozygosity and polymorphism information content (PIC) of the SSR markers were between 0.23 and 0.88, and 0.20 and 0.87, respectively. Twenty one out of the 31 garlic genotypes were analyzed in a previous study using AFLP markers and the garlic genotypes clustered together with AFLP markers were also grouped together with EST-SSR markers demonstrating high concordance between AFLP and EST-SSR marker systems and possible immediate application of EST-SSR markers for fingerprinting of garlic clones. EST-SSR markers could be used in genetic studies such as genetic mapping, association mapping, genetic diversity and comparison of the genomes of Allium species.United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS-0425034)Federal RePORTER (813495

Factors of Affecting Sleep Quality in Cancer Patients

Aim:Sleep disorders are one of the most common problems in patients with malignancy and they severely decrease the quality of life. We sought to investigate the frequency of sleep disturbances, its quantity, quality and possible correlation with related factors such as depression and anxiety.Materials and Methods:150 patients participated and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to evaluate the sleep quality. It is a self-administered questionnaire and standardized measure of sleep quality. Total score of ≥5 shows that the quality of sleep is remarkably bad. Also a self-report measure of depression, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI); and a self-report measure of anxiety, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used.Results:Of the 150 patients, 74.0% has bad sleep quality (score >5 ). Mean PSQI total score was 7.34 (min 0-max 20). No differences were found between PSQI mean scores in terms of gender, radiotherapy (RT), chemotherapy (CHT), having chronic disease or having metastatic disease. NSAIDs and opioids were significantly correlated with PSQI (p<0.001). PSQI total scores are strongly associated with the BDI score (r=.424, p<0.001) and BAI score (r=.417, p<0.001).Conclusion:We found a high prevalence rate of bad sleep quality at 74%. Effective sleep treatment and psychological support should be provided in oncology clinics

Fuzzy multi-criteria decision making for carbon dioxide geological storage in Turkey

The problem of choosing the best location for CO2 storage is a crucial and challenging multi-criteria decision problem for some companies. This study compares the performance of three fuzzy-based multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods, including Fuzzy TOPSIS, Fuzzy ELECTRE I and Fuzzy VIKOR for solving the carbon dioxide geological storage location selection problem in Turkey. The results show that MCDM approach is a useful tool for decision makers in the selection of potential sites for CO2 geological storage

Development and validation of new SSR markers from expressed regions in the garlic genome

Only a limited number of simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers is available for the genome of garlic (Allium sativum L.) despite the fact that SSR markers have become one of the most preferred DNA marker systems. To develop new SSR markers for the garlic genome, garlic expressed sequence tags (ESTs) at the publicly available GarlicEST database were screened for SSR motifs and a total of 132 SSR motifs were identified. Primer pairs were designed for 50 SSR motifs and 24 of these primer pairs were selected as SSR markers based on their consistent amplification patterns and polymorphisms. In addition, two SSR markers were developed from the sequences of garlic cDNA-AFLP fragments. The use of 26 EST-SSR markers for the assessment of genetic relationship was tested using 31 garlic genotypes. Twenty six EST-SSR markers amplified 130 polymorphic DNA fragments and the number of polymorphic alleles per SSR marker ranged from 2 to 13 with an average of 5 alleles. Observed heterozygosity and polymorphism information content (PIC) of the SSR markers were between 0.23 and 0.88, and 0.20 and 0.87, respectively. Twenty one out of the 31 garlic genotypes were analyzed in a previous study using AFLP markers and the garlic genotypes clustered together with AFLP markers were also grouped together with EST-SSR markers demonstrating high concordance between AFLP and EST-SSR marker systems and possible immediate application of EST-SSR markers for fingerprinting of garlic clones. EST-SSR markers could be used in genetic studies such as genetic mapping, association mapping, genetic diversity and comparison of the genomes of Allium species

Flow Sitometri ile Bazı Ispanak Aksesyonlarının Çekirdek DNA İçeriklerinin Belirlenmesi

Bu araştırmanın amacı, yurt dışından elde edilmiş olan 53 ıspanak (Spinacia oleracea L.) aksesyonunun flow sitometri ile ploidi düzeylerini belirlemektir. Araştırma verilerine göre; ıspanak aksesyonlarının çekirdek DNA içerikleri arasındaki farklılıkların istatistiki olarak önemli olduğu saptanmıştır. Araştırmada kullanılan ıspanak aksesyonlarının ortalama çekirdek DNA içeriği 2,225 pg/2C (Esfenaj çeşidi) ile 2,059 pg/2C (Matador ve Godir çeşitleri) arasında değişmiştir. Kök ucu meristem dokuları kullanılarak yapılan kromozom sayımlarında analiz edilen tüm bitkilerin 2n=12 kromozoma sahip oldukları ve dolayısıyla diploid oldukları belirlenmiştir. Bu nedenle çalışmada kullanılan aksesyonların tamamının diploid olduğu kabul edilmiştir. 2C DNA içeriklerine göre yapılan kümeleme analizi sonuçlarına göre iki ana küme altında sekiz farklı kümenin oluştuğu görülmüştür. Aksesyonların kümelenmesi çoklu karşılaştırma testinde de benzer sonucu vermiştir. Ispanak aksesyonlarında ploidi seviyelerini belirlemeye yönelik olarak yapılan bu çalışma sonucunda çalışmaya konu olan 53 ıspanak aksesyonu ile ileride yapılacak ıslah çalışmalarında araştırmacılara önemli bir zaman, enerji ve emek tasarrufu sağlayacaktır

Preventing depressive symptoms in school children

This thesis describes two studies which investigated the effectiveness of the Depression Prevention Program (DPP) in preventing depressive symptoms in children. The DPP is a group intervention which teaches children cognitive-behavioral and social problem-solving techniques. In the first study, we followed 69 fifth and sixth grade children at risk for depression, for two years after they participated in the DPP. We compared these children to 50 children in a no treatment control group. The prevention group reported significantly fewer depressive symptoms through the two year follow-up. There was evidence for long term relief from depressive symptoms in children who initially reported depressive symptoms, as well as evidence for prevention of depressive symptoms in children who initially reported few or no symptoms. The prevention program also improved children\u27s explanatory style. The effects of the prevention program grew over time after the completion of the program. The second study had two goals. The first goal was to replicate the initial results of the DPP. The second goal was to test the effects of adding a parent component to the DPP. Ninety-four 5th and 6th grade children were assigned to one of three groups: Child-and-Parent, Child-Only, and Control. Children in the Child-and-Parent condition participated in the DPP. Their parents participated in a separate group for parents. Children in the Child-Only condition participated in the DPP. Their parents did not participate in the parent groups. Control children and parents did not participate in any groups. The DPP was successful at relieving depressive symptoms and preventing symptoms through a 6 month follow-up. Inclusion of the parent component did not significantly improve the program\u27s prevention effect, and there was some evidence that the parent component may in fact have reduced this effect

Effect Of Particle Size And Surfactant On The Solubility, Permeability And Dissolution Characteristics Of Deferasirox

Deferasirox is an oral iron chelator used for the treatment of chronic iron overload in blood transfusions. Deferasirox is a BCS Class II drug with low solubility and high permeability. In the formulation development stage for BCS Class II compounds, one of the main approaches is solubility enhancement to achieve better dissolution profiles, increased bioavailability and in some cases, dose reduction. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of particle size and surfactant on the solubility, permeability and dissolution characteristics of deferasirox. Ball milling method was used to reduce the particle size of deferasirox. Pluronic F127 or sodium lauril sulfate (SLS) were selected as surfactants at different concentrations. The maximum increase in the solubility was obtained with 10% SLS at pH 1.2 (from 0.9 mu g/mL to 333.7 mu g/mL), and with 5% Pluronic F127 at pH 6.8 (from 46.8 mu g/mL to 334.2 mu g/mL). Dissolution studies revealed that time to dissolve 85% of deferasirox was decreased as a function of ball milling time and particle size. Permeability studies showed that, in 100 mu M concentration, deferasirox permeability was significantly enhanced by all concentrations of SLS (p0.05). All these results clearly demonstrated that surfactant addition to the formulations was effective for solubility enhancement of deferasirox, and surfactant type in optimized concentrations was very crucial. Particle size reduction can be used as a promising approach to improve dissolution, and hence bioavailability of deferasirox.WoSScopu