Defense expenditure and economic growth: empirical study on case of Turkey

MBA Professional ReportThis thesis set out to find the relationship, if any, between defense spending and economic growth for Turkey, and to discuss the policy implications of the empirical results. Since Turkey has one of the largest defense budgets within the Middle East and also NATO, this question has important implications for Turkey's future economic well-being and political stability. Taking into account the difficulties present in previous military expenditure studies, an econometric model was specified and empirically tested using Turkish data for 1969-2004. Results suggested that there is a negative linkage between military expenditure and economic growth. The second part of the empirical study tested the defense-welfare relationship for Turkey using expenditures on health and education as welfare proxies. The empirical findings suggested that there are tradeoffs between military expenditures and welfare spending. However, there seems to be a positive relationship between military expenditures and education. The Turkish Republic's defense policy has been continually guided by Ataturk's proverb of "peace at home, peace in the world." However, sustaining a peaceful environment has required a high level of military expenditures. What makes Turkey's military expenditures relatively high? Is it possible to draw inferences that high military expenditures are a requirement for Turkey? To answer these questions, factors that are major reasons for high military expenditures are also discussed in this thesis. These include strategic factors, conflicts with PKK terrorism, disputes with Greece, the military modernization program, and the economic environment of Turkey.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Beta 2 glycoprotein I Valine247Leucine polymorphism in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome

Aim: Beta 2 Glycoprotein I (β2-GP I) takes part in the pathogenesis of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Valine247Leucine (Val247Leu) gene polymorphism of β2-GP I might affect the binding/production of anti-β2-GP I antibodies. Multiple studies are showing different frequencies of this polymorphism in various ethnic backgrounds; we aimed to determine the frequency and clinical importance of Val247Leu gene polymorphism of β2-GP I in patients with APS and healthy. Methods: Eighty-three patients with APS [68 primary APS, 15 APS with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)] and 63 healthy individuals were included. Β2-GP I Val247Leu polymorphism was determined by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction and melting curve analysis. The presence of anti-β2-GP I antibodies was detected by ELISA in the patient group. Results: Allele and genotype frequencies were similar between patients and healthy controls (p=0,307). V allele and VV genotype frequencies were significantly higher in primary APS patients with thrombocytopenia (p=0.040). There was no significant difference between β2-GP I Val247Leu gene polymorphism and the anti-β2-GP IgM and IgG antibody levels in the patient group (p=0.631 and p=0.077, respectively) Conclusion: This is the first study investigating the β2-GP I Val247Leu gene polymorphism in the Turkish population. The frequencies of Val247Leu gene polymorphism of β2-GP I were not different between patients with APS and healthy individuals in line with the other studies in Caucasian populations. Significantly high levels of V allele and VV genotype frequencies in primary APS patients could offer further insight to into the pathogenesis of thrombocytopenia in APS

Treatment of urinary incontinence after stroke in adults

Background: Urinary incontinence can affect 40-60% of people admitted to hospital after a stroke, with 25% still having problems on hospital discharge and 15% remaining incontinent at one year. Objectives: To determine the optimal methods for treatment of urinary incontinence after stroke in adults. Search methods: We searched the Cochrane Incontinence and Stroke Groups specialised registers (searched 15 March 2007 and 5 March 2007 respectively), CINAHL (January 1982 to January 2007), national and international trial databases for unpublished data, and the reference lists of relevant articles. Selection criteria: Randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials evaluating the effects of interventions designed to promote continence in people after stroke. Data collection and analysis: Data extraction and quality assessment were undertaken by two reviewers working independently. Disagreements were resolved by a third reviewer. Main results: Twelve trials with a total of 724 participants were included in the review. Participants were from a mixture of settings, age groups and phases of stroke recovery. Behavioural interventions Three trials assessed behavioural interventions, such as timed voiding and pelvic floor muscle training. All had small sample sizes and confidence intervals were wide

Expanding the clinical and immunological phenotypes of PAX1-deficient SCID and CID patients

Paired box 1 (PAX1) deficiency has been reported in a small number of patients diagnosed with otofaciocervical syndrome type 2 (OFCS2). We described six new patients who demonstrated variable clinical penetrance. Reduced transcriptional activity of pathogenic variants confirmed partial or complete PAX1 deficiency. Thymic aplasia and hypoplasia were associated with impaired T cell immunity. Corrective treatment was required in 4/6 patients. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation resulted in poor immune reconstitution with absent naïve T cells, contrasting with the superior recovery of T cell immunity after thymus transplantation. Normal ex vivo differentiation of PAX1-deficient CD34+ cells into mature T cells demonstrated the absence of a hematopoietic cell-intrinsic defect. New overlapping features with DiGeorge syndrome included primary hypoparathyroidism (n = 5) and congenital heart defects (n = 2), in line with PAX1 expression during early embryogenesis. Our results highlight new features of PAX1 deficiency, which are relevant to improving early diagnosis and identifying patients requiring corrective treatment

Mining and validating grape (Vitis L.) ESTs to develop EST-SSR markers for genotyping and mapping

Grape expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are a new resource for developing simple sequence repeat (SSR) functional markers for genotyping and genetic mapping. An integrated pipeline including several computational tools for SSR identification and functional annotation was developed to identify 6,447 EST-SSR sequences from a total collection of 215,609 grape ESTs retrieved from NCBI. The 6,447 EST-SSRs were further reduced to 1,701 non-redundant sequences via clustering analysis, and 1,037 of them were successfully designed with primer pairs flanking the SSR motifs. From them, 150 pairs of primers were randomly selected for PCR amplification, polymorphism and heterozygosity analysis in V. vinifera cvs. Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, and V. rotundifolia (muscadine grape) cvs. Summit and Noble, and 145 pairs of these primers yielded PCR products. Pairwise comparisons of loci between the parents Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon showed that 72 were homozygous in both cultivars, while 70 loci were heterozygous in at least one cultivar of the two. Muscadine parents Noble and Summit had 90 homozygous SSR loci in both parents and contained 50 heterozygous loci in at least one of the two. These EST-SSR functional markers are a useful addition for grape genotyping and genome mapping

Integrated physical, genetic and genome map of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Physical map of chickpea was developed for the reference chickpea genotype (ICC 4958) using bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries targeting 71,094 clones (~12× coverage). High information content fingerprinting (HICF) of these clones gave high-quality fingerprinting data for 67,483 clones, and 1,174 contigs comprising 46,112 clones and 3,256 singletons were defined. In brief, 574 Mb genome size was assembled in 1,174 contigs with an average of 0.49 Mb per contig and 3,256 singletons represent 407 Mb genome. The physical map was linked with two genetic maps with the help of 245 BAC-end sequence (BES)-derived simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. This allowed locating some of the BACs in the vicinity of some important quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for drought tolerance and reistance to Fusarium wilt and Ascochyta blight. In addition, fingerprinted contig (FPC) assembly was also integrated with the draft genome sequence of chickpea. As a result, ~965 BACs including 163 minimum tilling path (MTP) clones could be mapped on eight pseudo-molecules of chickpea forming 491 hypothetical contigs representing 54,013,992 bp (~54 Mb) of the draft genome. Comprehensive analysis of markers in abiotic and biotic stress tolerance QTL regions led to identification of 654, 306 and 23 genes in drought tolerance “QTL-hotspot” region, Ascochyta blight resistance QTL region and Fusarium wilt resistance QTL region, respectively. Integrated physical, genetic and genome map should provide a foundation for cloning and isolation of QTLs/genes for molecular dissection of traits as well as markers for molecular breeding for chickpea improvement

Chickpea

Pulses form a major source of protein, particularly for vegetarian diet, and chickpea ranks among the leading legumes in this regard. Albeit considerable efforts at national and international levels, productivity of the chickpea crop has been stagnated for long due to the major biotic and abiotic constraints caused by Ascochyta blight, Fusarium wilt, pod borer, drought, and cold. Though many wild annual Cicer species possess a wealth of agronomically desirable donor genes, particularly those conferring resistance to stresses, they are sexually incompatible with the cultivated species. Transgenic approach is, therefore, a potential alternative means for incorporation of desirable alien genes into chickpea. This chapter highlights various dimensions of the international efforts in producing transgenic chickpea and provides a comprehensive perspective of strategies and achievements. Development of transgenic chickpea includes different aspects such as locating genes for particular traits from available chickpea germplasm, their isolation, making suitable constructs to transfer into chickpea through modifying them by adding marker gene, promoter sequence, and termination sequence for their effective expression, and finally transformation followed by an efficient regeneration protocol. This technology will have a very important role in developing newer varieties of chickpea with desired traits such as insect resistance, disease resistance, and drought/cold resistance

Legume Genomics and Breeding

This chapter contains sections titled; Introduction; Constraints in Crop Production; Genomic Resources in Legumes;Trait Mapping and Marker-Assisted Selection; Summary and Prospects; Acknowledgments; Literature Cite