Developing A Modular Web based System for Special Education: Advantages and Challenges

AbstractThe increasing complexity of regulations governing and tracking the special education process made it ever more difficult for all parties which may be special education centers (SECs), individuals, educators, parents, government and healthcare centers. Since there are many difficulties in the management of special education, SECs cannot easily process their essence aim. In this manner, information technologies help these parties to participate equally for managing special education. Modular web based systems are one of the information technology solutions to overcome these problems. In this paper, the goal is to show the fundamental advantages and also discuss the challenges in developing such a modular web based system for special education. If the advantages of the system can be understood and the challenges of the system can be properly addressed, the development of a modular web based system for special education, in our opinion, can be promoted significantly.Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hafize Keser

The Effects of the Content Elements of Online Banner Ads on Visual Attention: Evidence from An-Eye-Tracking Study

The aim of this paper is to examine the influence of the content elements of online banner ads on customers’ visual attention, and to evaluate the impacts of gender, discount rate and brand familiarity on this issue. An eye-tracking study with 34 participants (18 male and 16 female) was conducted, in which the participants were presented with eight types of online banner ads comprising three content elements—namely brand, discount rate and image—while their eye movements were recorded. The results showed that the image was the most attractive area among the three main content elements. Furthermore, the middle areas of the banners were noticed first, and areas located on the left side were mostly noticed earlier than those on the right side. The results also indicated that the discount areas of banners with higher discount rates were more attractive and eye-catching compared to those of banners with lower discount rates. In addition to these, the participants who were familiar with the brand mostly concentrated on the discount area, while those who were unfamiliar with the brand mostly paid attention to the image area. The findings from this study will assist marketers in creating more effective and efficient online banner ads that appeal to customers, ultimately fostering positive attitudes towards the advertisement.publishedVersio

Factors associated with complications of vaginal hysterectomy in patients with pelvic organ prolapse — a single centre’s experience

Objectives: The study aimed to examine the predisposing factors that play a role in the development of complications in patients undergoing vaginal hysterectomy. Material and methods: This retrospective analysis was performed on data provided from 239 patients who underwent vaginal hysterectomy due to uterine prolapse at a single centre between January 2008 and August 2018. Complications were defined according to Clavien-Dindo classification of complications. The patients were divided into two groups: with and without complications. We built a model using multivariable logistic regression to examine the relationships between complications and five candidate predictors. Results: Intra/postoperative complications developed in 30 patients, and the complication rate was found to be 12.5%. 87.2% of the reported complications were classified as Grade ≤ 2 according to Clavien-Dindo system. It was found that complications were associated with factors such as intraoperative concurrent salpingo-oophorectomy [Odds ratio (OR): 1.24 (1.1–1.4)], low preoperative haemoglobin [OR: 0.96 (0.94–0.98)], uterine weight [OR: 2.69 (2.62–2.76)], and long operation time [OR: 1.04 (1.02–1.07)]. History of pelvic surgery was not found to increase complication rate [OR: 1.11 (0.96–1.27), p = 0.13]. Our multiple logistic regression model correctly classified 74% of participants within the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. Conclusions: Preoperative anaemia, large uterus and concomitant adnexectomy were found to be factors associated with complications during and after vaginal hysterectomy for pelvic organ prolapse

The thiol/disulfide balance in ketone positive and ketone negative pregnant women with nausea and vomiting — a prospective study in a tertiary center

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the thiol/disulfide balance in ketone positive (hyperemesis gravidarum) and ketonenegative pregnant women with nausea and vomiting.Material and methods: A total of 60 patients under the 14th week of pregnancy were included in this study, and they weredivided into two groups. Group 1 included 30 pregnant women with ketone positive, group 2 included 30 ketone negativepregnant women with nausea, and vomiting.Results: The native thiol, disulfide, and total thiol concentrations were measured using an automated method and comparedamong the two groups. There were also three indexes that are derived from disulfide, native and total thiol (Index1 = 100 × disulfide/native thiol); (Index 2 = 100 × disulfide/total thiol); (Index 3 = 100 × native thiol/total thiol). Whencompared with Group 1 and Group 2, total thiol was high, native thiol was low but not statistically significant. Disulphide(p = 0.046), index 1 (p = 0.036) and index 3 (p = 0.034) were statistically significant.Conclusions: Patients with ketone positive are shifting to OS direction due to lack of nutrients and electrolytes. This studyemphasizes the therapeutic potential of antioxidant supplementation, which is becoming an increasingly used approachin treating the symptoms of women with ketone positive

A comparison between a combination of letrozole and clomiphene citrate versus gonadotropins for ovulation induction in infertile patients with clomiphene citrateresistant polycystic ovary syndrome — a retrospective study

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare a combination treatment with CC plus letrozole versus gonadotropinsin CC-resistant polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) patients with regard to ovulation and clinical pregnancy rate.Material and methods: One hundred sixteen CC-resistant infertile PCOS patients were evaluated retrospectively. The patientswere divided into two groups. Group 1 (n = 73) received CC plus letrozole, and Group 2 (n = 43) received gonadotropins.Results: The ovulation rate in Group 1 was 65/73 (89%), the pregnancy rate was 13/73 (18%), the twin foetuses rate was1/73 (1.3%) and the miscarriage rate was 2/73 (2.7%). In Group 2, the ovulation rate was 41/43 (95%), and the pregnancyrate was 8/43 (19%) the rate of the twin foetuses was 1/43 (2.3%) and the miscarriage rate was 1/43 (2.3%). There was nostatistically significant difference in the ovulation (p = 0.25), pregnancy (p = 0.91), twin foetuses (p = 0.89) and miscarriagep = 0.89) rates between two groups.Conclusions: This new drug combination suggests that it may be a lower cost, lower risk alternative treatment that increasesthe rate of ovulation. Larger randomized clinical trials are needed to provide information on live birth rates of thiscombination

Ghrelin does not change in hyperemesis gravidarum

Objectives: Ghrelin levels can play an important role in maintaining the energy balance of pregnant women. Therefore,we investigated the relationship between HG and Ghrelin.Material and methods: 50 female patients admitted to the VAN Yüzüncü Yıl University, Gynecology and Obstetrics Departmentwere evaluated. The patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 included 25 pregnant women with HG, Group 2included 25 healthy pregnant women.Results: The two groups showed similarities in terms of age, gravidity, B-HCG and gestational age. There was no statisticallysignificant difference between the two groups in terms of the Ghrelin levels (p = 0.867).Conclusions: This study shows that there is no difference between Ghrelin levels and HG during pregnancy. IncreasedGhrelin in previous studies was attributed to low oral intake. Another study reported lower Ghrelin levels are not the resultof, but are rather the cause of, reduced oral intake during. The balancing of these two conditions does not lead to a changein the level of Ghrelin

Evaluation of catalase, myeloperoxidase and ferroxidase values in pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum

Objectives: To investigate maternal serum catalase, myeloperoxidase and ferroxidase levels in pregnant women with Hyperemesis Gravidarum and to compare the results with healthy pregnancies.  Material and methods: In this study, 60 female patients admitted to the Health Sciences University, Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital, Gynecology and Obstetrics Department were evaluated. The patients were divided into two groups: Group 1 included 30 pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum; Group 2 included 30 healthy pregnant women. Pregnancies over 14 weeks were excluded from the study.  Results: The laboratory and laboratory characteristics of both groups are shown in Table 1. No significant differences were found between the groups in terms of the maternal age, gestational age, gravidity, parity, fasting glucose level, and BMI. The maternal blood CAT levels were significantly higher in the HG group (219.6 ± 111.3 kU/L) when compared to the control group (71.5 ± 52.5 kU/L) (p < 0.001). The maternal blood MPO levels were lower in the control group (121.5 ± 36.3 U/L) than in the study group (90.9 ± 56.4 U/L) (p = 0.016). However, the ferroxidase levels were similar between the two groups. The independent variables BMI, age, parity, gravidity and gestational week effects were adjusted according to the logistic regression method with groups. Significant differences were observed between the two groups in the levels of CAT (0.001), MPO (0.005) values.  Conclusions: This study suggests that antioxidants in response to oxidative stress gave different reactions with different mechanisms; Also, we believe that insufficient food intake suppresses the immune system and this has an important role on antioxidants

Unscarred uterine rupture and subsequent pregnancy outcome — a tertiary centre experience

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence, etiology and obstetric outcomes of rupture in unscarreduterine rupture and in those with a history of uterine ruptureMaterial and methods: The hospital records of women who had delivered between May 2005 and May 2017 at a tertiarycenter were examined retrospectively. Data on patients with unscarred uterine rupture in pregnancy who had undergonefertility-preserving surgery were evaluated.Results: During the study period, 185,609 deliveries occurred. Of those, unscarred uterine rupture has occurred in67 women. There were no ruptures reported in nulliparous women. The rupture was observed in the isthmic region in60 (89.6%) patients and in the fundus in 7 (10.4%) patients. Thirty-eight (56.7%) patients had undergone a total or subtotalhysterectomy, and 29 (43.3%) patients had received primary repair. Ten patients had reconceived after the repair. Of these,eight patients who had a history of isthmic rupture, successfully delivered by elective C-section at 36–37 wk. of gestation,and two experienced recurrent rupture at 33 and 34 wk. of gestation, respectively. Both patients had a history of fundalrupture, and their inter-pregnancy interval was 9 and 11 mo., respectively.Conclusions: The incidence of rupture in unscarred pregnant uteri was found to be one per 2,770 deliveries. Owing to thehigh morbidity, regarding more than half of the cases with rupture eventuated in hysterectomy, clinicians should be prudentin induction of labour for multiparous women since it was the main cause of rupture in this series. Short inter-pregnancyintervals and history of fundal rupture may confer a risk for rupture recurrence. Those risk factors for recurrence should bevalidated in another studies

Perakende sektöründe müşteri satın alma davranışının modellenmesi ve tahmin edilmesi.

In today’s business, grocery retail industry companies operate in highly competitive environment. Such an intense competition have compelled companies to develop close and long-term relationships with their customers by implementing more targeted marketing strategies and personalized services. To implement such customized services, modelling and predicting customer purchase behaviors are essential. Accordingly, this thesis mainly aims to model and predict the customers’ purchasing behavior in the grocery retail industry using machine learning techniques on past customer purchase logs. To this end, customer segmentation, product segmentation, prediction of customers’ individual purchase behaviors, and shopping list prediction are studied and a novel evaluation metric and an approach for determining recommendation list size are proposed. This thesis may serve as a valuable reference for academics and researchers who are willing to investigate customer purchase behavior and identify hidden patterns in their transactional data, and also promises substantial benefits to marketers and decision makers of grocery retailing industry in developing customized services and marketing activities.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra

Predicting firms' performances in customer complaint management using machine learning techniques

4th International Conference on Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems (INFUS) -- JUL 19-21, 2022 -- Bornova, TURKEYWith the globalization and more intense increasing competition, customer relationship management (CRM) is an important issue in today's business. In this manner, managing customer complaints which is a critical part of CRM presents firms with an is an opportunity to make long-lasting and profitable relationships with customers. In this context, the aim of this paper is to predict firms' performances in online customer complaint management using machine learning algorithms. This study utilizes data obtained from Turkey's largest and well-known third-party online complaint platform and employs three popular machine learning classifiers including decision tree (DT), random forests (RF) and support vector machines (SVM). The results show that the RF algorithm performed better in firms' performance prediction compared to other ML algorithms