Factors Affecting Inadequate Empirical Antimicrobial Therapy and the Clinical Course of Upper Urinary Tract Infections in Elderly Patients: A Multicenter Study

7th International Congress of Infectious-Diseases-and-Clinical-Microbiology-Speciality-Society-of-Turkey -- MAY 08-13, 2018 -- Antalya, TURKEYIntroduction: In this study, we aimed to determine the risk factors associated with inadequate empirical antibiotherapy (IEAT) and hospital-related mortality in elderly patients being treated for upper urinary tract infections (UTI). Materials and Methods: This study included individuals aged 65 years and over who were hospitalized after being diagnosed of community-acquired UTI or community-onset healthcare-associated UTI and followed-up in clinics and/or intensive care units (ICU) of 33 hospitals between March and September 2017. Results: A total of 525 patients (48% males; mean age: 76.46 +/- 7.93 years) were included in the study. Overall, 68.2% of the patients were hospitalized through the emergency department and 73.9% of patients were followed-up for pyelonephritis. Gram-negative, Gram-positive, and Gram-negative and positive mix growths were determined in 88%, 9.3%, and 2.7% of urine cultures, respectively. Fifty-six (10.7%) of the patients died. In multivariate analysis, the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [Odds ratio (OR): 2.278], age 85 years and over (OR: 2.816), admission to the ICU (OR: 14.831), and IEAT (OR: 2.364) were independent factors that significantly affected mortality. The presence of a urinary catheter, being followed-up in the ICU, benign prostate hypertrophy, use of antibiotics other than piperacillin-tazobactam and carbapenem were determined as independent factors that significantly affected IEAT (p<0.05). Conclusion: In our study, we found a direct correlation between IEAT and mortality. Therefore, knowing the most frequent microorganisms and antibiotic susceptibility profiles observed in the UTI of elderly patients may help to decrease the mortality and morbidity associated with these infections.Infect Dis & Clin Microbil Special Soc Turkiy

Annotating Subordinators in the Turkish Discourse Bank

In this paper we explain how we annotated subordinators in the Turkish Discourse Bank (TDB), an effort that started in 2007 and is still continuing. We introduce the project and describe some of the issues that were important in annotating three subordinators, namely kars¸ın, ragmen ˘ and halde, all of which encode the coherence relation Contrast-Concession. We also describe the annotation tool

Perspective of turkish medicine students on cancer, cancer treatments, palliative care, and oncologists (ares study): A study of the palliative care working committee of the turkish oncology group (TOG)

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death all over the World (Rahib et al. in Cancer Res 74(11):2913–2921, 2014; Silbermann et al. in Ann Oncol 23(Suppl 3):iii15–iii28, 2012). It is crucial to diagnose this disease early by effective screening methods and also it is very important to acknowledge the community on various aspects of this disease such as the treatment methods and palliative care. Not only the oncologists but every medical doctor should be educated well in dealing with cancer patients. Previous studies suggested various opinions on the level of oncology education in medical schools (Pavlidis et al. in Ann Oncol 16(5):840–841, 2005). In this study, the perspectives of medical students on cancer, its treatment, palliative care, and the oncologists were analyzed in relation to their educational status. A multicenter survey analysis was performed on a total of 4224 medical school students that accepted to enter this study in Turkey. After the questions about the demographical characteristics of the students, their perspectives on the definition, diagnosis, screening, and treatment methods of cancer and their way of understanding metastatic disease as well as palliative care were analyzed. The questionnaire includes questions with answers and a scoring system of Likert type 5 (absolutely disagree = 1, completely agree = 5). In the last part of the questionnaire, there were some words to detect what the words “cancer” and “oncologist” meant for the students. The participant students were analyzed in two study groups; “group 1” (n = 1.255) were phases I and II students that had never attended an oncology lesson, and “group 2” (n = 2.969) were phases III to VI students that had attended oncology lessons in the medical school. SPSS v17 was used for the database and statistical analyses. A value of p < 0.05 was noted as statistically significant. Group 1 defined cancer as a contagious disease (p = 0.00025), they believed that early diagnosis was never possible (p = 0.042), all people with a diagnosis of cancer would certainly die (p = 0.044), and chemotherapy was not successful in a metastatic disease (p = 0.003) as compared to group 2. The rate of the students that believed gastric cancer screening was a part of the national screening policy was significantly more in group 1 than in group 2 (p = 0.00014). Group 2 had a higher anxiety level for themselves or their family members to become a cancer patient. Most of the students in both groups defined medical oncologists as warriors (57% in group 1 and 40% in group 2; p = 0.097), and cancer was reminding them of “death” (54% in group 1 and 48% in group 2; p = 0.102). This study suggested that oncology education was useful for the students’ understanding of cancer and related issues; however, the level of oncology education should be improved in medical schools in Turkey. This would be helpful for medical doctors to cope with many aspects of cancer as a major health care problem in this country. © 2018, American Association for Cancer Education

Impact and post impact (CAI) behavior of stitched woven-knit hybrid composites

In this study, the effect of stitch pattern on the impact and post impact (CAI) behavior of eight ply woven-knit hybrid composite plates consisting of 2D woven fabrics as outer layers and rib knitted fabrics as inner layers was investigated. Layers of the woven-knit hybrid composite plates were sewed in circular, square and diamond shape through thickness in order to prevent delamination and slippage between the layers. Impact and post impact testing were carried out in order to determine the impact and post impact resistance of three different stitched composite structures. Results showed that the impact strength of composite laminate increased 5.5%, 11% and 22% in the case of square, diamond, and circular stitching, respectively. It was also found that the woven-knit hybrid composites with square pattern have the highest CAI strength. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.108M128This study was sponsored by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), (Project No: 108M128). Partial financial support by Pul-tech FRP, in Usak-Turkey, was also gratefully acknowledged

The effect of stacking sequence on the impact and post-impact behavior of woven/knit fabric glass/epoxy hybrid composites

In this study, the effect of stacking sequence on the impact behavior of sequentially stacked woven/knit fabric glass/epoxy hybrid composites was investigated. 2D (double layer) fabric was used as a woven fabric and rib and milano fabrics were used as knitted fabrics. Woven and knit fabric layers were sequentially stacked in six different variations to fabricate eight ply woven/knit fabric hybrid composites. The composite laminates were processed by hand lay-up technique using 3. mm thick spacers and cured under pressure of 8. MPa for 100. min. at 100. °C, followed by cooling at room temperature under same pressure. The impact and post-impact (CAI) behavior of hybrid composites at various impact energies were investigated. FEA results were compared with experimental results. Results show that specimens having outer layer of woven fabric exhibited better impact properties than that of the specimens having outer layer of knitted fabric. The worst performance in terms of impact resistance was observed in knit/knit composites. FEA analysis was in a good agreement with the experimental results. © 2013.108M128 National Council for Scientific ResearchThis study was sponsored by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), (Project No: 108M128). Partial financial support by Pul-tech FRP, in Usak – Turkey, was also gratefully acknowledged

Investigation of knitting architecture on the impact behavior of glass/epoxy composites

In this study, the effect of impact and post-impact behavior of E-glass/epoxy composite plates having different knitted fabrics were investigated by considering energy profile diagram and the related load-deflection curves. Different impact energies (5-25 J) were subjected to the plates consisting of eight layers of Plain [P]8, Milano [M]8, and Rib [R]8 knitted fabrics. The impact tests were continued until complete perforation of layer fabrics. The damage modes and damage processes of layer fabrics under varied impact energies were also discussed. At the end of the impact tests, the damaged samples were mounted into a compression apparatus to determine the Compression after Impact (CAI) strength of layer fabric samples. The results of these impact and post-impact tests showed that the maximum contact force was observed in the [R]8 fabric and the minimum contact force was observed in the [P]8 fabric and the CAI strength reduced by increasing the impact energy. Crown Copyright© 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.108M128 National Council for Scientific ResearchFinancial support for this study was provided by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), (Project Number: 108M128)