İli Bölgesindeki “Ottuz Oğul Meşrebi”nin Mahallî Özellikleri Üzerine

Çeviri Makale/Translation Article Meşrepler Uygur folklorunun hemen hemen tüm unsurlarını içinde barındıran önemli kültürel miraslarımızdan birisidir. Toplum bireylerinin hoşça vakit geçirmesini, aynı zamanda büyüklere saygı, küçüklere sevgi, edep, ahlak, paylaşım, adalet ve törelere itaat gibi sosyal değerleri öğrenip benimsemelerini sağlar. Yapı ve işlevsel açıdan Anadolu sahasındaki sıra/yaren geceleri ile benzerlik gösterir. Bu makalede İli yöresine has "Ottuz Oğul Meşrebi"nin yapısal özellikleri ve işleyişi incelenecektir

Epidemiology of HPV Genotypes among HIV Positive Women in Kenya: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: There is a scarcity of data on the distribution of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in the HIV positive population and in invasive cervical cancer (ICC) in Kenya. This may be different from genotypes found in abnormal cytology. Yet, with the advent of preventive HPV vaccines that target HPV 16 and 18, and the nonavalent vaccine targeting 90% of all ICC cases, such HPV genotype distribution data are indispensable for predicting the impact of vaccination and HPV screening on prevention. Even with a successful vaccination program, vaccinated women will still require screening to detect those who will develop ICC from other High risk (HR) HPV genotypes not prevented by current vaccines. The aim of this review is to report on the prevalence of pHR/HR HPV types and multiple pHR/HR HPV genotypes in Kenya among HIV positive women with normal, abnormal cytology and ICC. Methods: PUBMED, EMBASE, SCOPUS, and PROQUEST were searched for articles on HPV infection up to August 2nd 2016. Search terms were HIV, HPV, Cervical Cancer, Incidence or Prevalence, and Kenya. Results: The 13 studies included yielded a total of 2116 HIV-infected women, of which 89 had ICC. The overall prevalence of pHR/HR HPV genotypes among HIV-infected women was 64% (95%CI: 50%-77%). There was a borderline significant difference in the prevalence of pHR/HR HPV genotypes between Female Sex workers (FSW) compared to non-FSW in women with both normal and abnormal cytology. Multiple pHR/HR HPV genotypes were highly prominent in both normal cytology/HSIL and ICC. The most prevalent HR HPV genotypes in women with abnormal cytology were HPV 16 with 26%, (95%CI: 23.0%-30.0%) followed by HPV 35 and 52, with 21% (95%CI: 18%-25%) and 18% (95%CI: 15%-21%), respectively. In women with ICC, the most prevalent HPV genotypes were HPV 16 (37%; 95%CI: 28%-47%) and HPV 18 (24%; 95%CI: 16%-33%). Conclusion: HPV 16/18 gains prominence as the severity of cervical disease increases, with HPV 16/18 accounting for 61% (95%CI: 50.0%-70.0%) of all ICC cases. A secondary prevention program will be necessary as this population harbors multiple pHR/HR HPV co-infections, which may not be covered by current vaccines. A triage based on FSW as an indicator may be warranted

Melatonin improves the efficiency of super-ovulation and timed artificial insemination in sheep

It has been well proved that melatonin participates in the regulation of the seasonal reproduction of ewes. However, the effects of short term treatment of melatonin on ewe’s ovulation are still to be clarified. In this study, the effects of melatonin on the number of embryos harvested from superovulation, and the pregnant rate in recipients after embryo transferred have been investigated. Hu sheep with synchronous estrus treatment were given melatonin subcutaneously injection (0, 5, and 10 mg/ewe, respectively). It was found that the estrogen level in the group of 5 mg melatonin was significantly higher than that of other two groups at the time of sperm insemination (p < 0.05). The pregnant rate and number of lambs in the group of 5 mg melatonin treatment was also significantly higher than that of the rests of the groups (P < 0.05). In another study, 31 Suffolk ewes as donors and 103 small-tailed han sheep ewes as recipients were used to produce pronuclear embryo and embryo transfer. Melatonin (5 mg) was given to the donors during estrus. The results showed that, the number of pronuclear embryos and the pregnancy rate were also significantly higher in melatonin group than that in the control group. In addition, 28 donors and 44 recipient ewes were used to produce morula/blastocyst and embryo transferring. Melatonin (5 mg) was given during estrus. The total number of embryos harvested (7.40 ± 1.25/ewe vs. 3.96 ± 0.73/ewe, P < 0.05) and the pregnant rate (72.3 ± 4.6% vs. 54.7 ± 4.0%, P < 0.05) and number of lambs were also increased in melatonin group compared to the control group. Collectively, the results have suggested that melatonin treatment 36 hours after CIDR withdrawal could promote the number and quality of embryos in vivo condition and increased the pregnant rate and number of lambs

Frequent silencing of RASSF1A by DNA methylation in thymic neuroendocrine tumours

Objectives: Aberrant methylation of promoter CpG islands (CGIs) of tumour suppressor genes is a common epigenetic mechanism underlying cancer pathogenesis. The methylation patterns of thymic tumours have not been studied in detail since such tumours are rare. Herein, we sought to identify genes that could serve as epigenetic targets for thymic neuroendocrine tumour (NET) therapy. Materials and Methods: Genome-wide screening for aberrantly methylated CGIs was performed in three NET samples, seven thymic carcinoma (TC) samples, and eight type-B3 thymoma samples. The methylation status of thymic epithelial tumours (TETs) samples was validated by pyrosequencing in a larger cohort. The expression status was analysed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and immunohistochemistry. Results: We identified a CGI on a novel gene, RASSF1A, which was strongly hypermethylated in NET, but not in thymic carcinoma or B3 thymoma. RASSF1A was identified as a candidate gene statistically and bibliographically, as it showed frequent CGI hypermethylation in NET by genome-wide screening. Pyrosequencing confirmed significant hypermethylation of a RASSF1A CGI in NET. Low-grade NET tissue was more strongly methylated than high-grade NET. Quantitative PCR and immunohistochemical staining revealed that RASSF1A mRNA and protein expression levels were negatively regulated by DNA methylation. Conclusions: RASSF1A is a tumour suppressor gene epigenetically dysregulated in NET. Aberrant methylation of RASSF1A has been reported in various tumours, but this is the first report of RASSF1A hypermethylation in TETs. RASSF1A may represent an epigenetic therapeutic target in thymic NET

Development of molecularly imprinted fluorescence sensor chips

The full abstract for this thesis is available in the body of the thesis, and will be available when the embargo expires.Applied Science, Faculty ofChemical and Biological Engineering, Department ofGraduat

Büyük ölçekli marka veri kümelerinde marka tarama yöntemlerinin karşılaştırılması.

By the end of the first decades of the 21 th century, the applications for trademarks worldwide have approached an astounding number of 5 million. In Turkey alone, this number has reached the 1 million mark, and is expected by all means to keep increasing. The accelerating competition of trademark influence and uniqueness has intensified trademark piracies and infringements, and therefore resulted in a substantial burden for the patent offices, not to mention direct economic losses. To overcome this ever-increasing problem of trademark registration without compromising from service quality, and to minimize unnecessary disputes of legal ownership, organizations like patent offices gradually turn to automatized registration, employing Trademark Retrieval Systems (TRS) equipped with image processing and computer vision tools. The last two decades have seen the successful implementation of well-known content-based image processing (CBIR) techniques in several TRS systems. However, these results are falling behind as the rapid increase in trademark registration escalates the trademark retrieval problem to the next level. Developing next-generation TRS systems with well-examined and analyzed new image retrieval and object detection techniques is necessary. Yet, the lack of public large-scale trademark datasets has obstructed the progress of this research field. In this thesis, to fill this gap, we offer a large scale and challenging dataset with 1 million trademarks as a benchmark. Then, as an initial attempt to trademark retrieval research on large scale datasets, we implement and analyze a variety of global image descriptors (\eg, color, shape, texture), as well as local image descriptors (\eg, SIFT, SURF, HOG, ORG), on this dataset (called the METU trademark dataset).M.S. - Master of Scienc

Food insecurity and HIV related health outcomes in HIV-Hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infected individuals

Food insecurity (FI) is a significant social and health problem. Among the general population, FI is known to be associated with poor self-rated health, hypertension and depression. Among people living with HIV, FI may also have HIV-related consequences, such as poor adherence to combined antiretroviral treatment (cART), poor viral control, and poor immune recovery. Despite the evidence of adverse health impacts of FI among HIV infected people, little is known about the HIV-related health outcomes of FI among HIV-hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infected people. The HIV-HCV co-infected people have some unique characteristics, including higher rates of injection drug use (IDU) and liver related morbidity and mortality. Therefore, findings from HIV mono-infected people may not be generalizable to HIV-HCV co-infected persons. The overall goal of this work is to assess the association between FI and both HIV viral load and CD4 count among people co-infected with HIV-HCV; to determine if the presence of depressive symptoms mediates the effect of FI on these outcomes; and to quantify the controlled direct effect of FI that does not pass through depressive symptoms.First, systematic literature reviews were conducted on the associations between FI and both HIV viral load and CD4 count among people living with HIV to fully understand the impact of FI among this vulnerable population subgroup. Meta-analyzed results indicated that HIV-positive people experiencing FI were more likely to have a detectable HIV viral load and a lower CD4 count compared to people who were food secure.Second, the association between FI, and both HIV viral load and CD4 count among HIV-HCV co-infected people was assessed using data from the Food Security & HIV-HCV Sub-Study of the Canadian Co-Infection Cohort. An Inverse probability weighted marginal structural model was fitted to account for potential time-varying confounders. The results demonstrated that FI was associated with both detectable HIV viral load and lower CD4 count among co-infected people.Third, we evaluated if the presence of depressive symptoms mediates the effect of FI on HIV viral load and CD4 count through two sub-steps: (1) assessing the association between FI and depressive symptoms, (2) assessing the associations between depressive symptoms, and both HIV viral load and CD4 count. In both analyses, marginal structural models were fitted to account for time-varying confounders. Findings demonstrated that the presence of depressive symptoms mediates the effect of FI on HIV viral load. Lastly, a stochastic mediation analysis was conducted to assess the mediating role of depressive symptoms in the association between FI, and both HIV viral load and CD4 count. For comparison purposes, the mediating role of cART adherence was also assessed for the same associations. Results showed that both depressive symptoms and cART adherence partially mediate the effect of FI on HIV related health outcomes, indicating the existence of pathways other than depressive symptoms and cART adherence. Therefore, intervention on depressive symptoms and cART adherence was not sufficient to eliminate the harmful effect of FI on HIV viral load and CD4 count.Through this work, we identified an important risk factor for having detectable HIV viral load and lower CD4 count among people co-infected with HIV-HCV. These patients tend to have higher mortality due to high rates of liver related death. Since unsuppressed HIV viral load and low CD4 count represent independent risk factors for liver related morbidities, addressing FI could improve both HIV related and HCV related health outcomes. Lastly, mediation analyses showed that intervention on mediators was not sufficient to block the detrimental effect of FI on HIV related health outcomes. Given the significant amount of direct effect, intervention on FI must be accompanied to improve HIV related treatment outcomes among this population subgroup.L'insécurité alimentaire (IA) est un problème social et de santé important. Malgré les signes d'effets néfastes sur la santé de l’IA chez les personnes vivant avec le VIH, on sait peu de choses au sujet des conséquences de l’IA liées à l’infection par le VIH sur la santé des personnes co-infectées par le VIH-hépatite C (VHC). La population co-infectée par le VIH-VHC présente des caractéristiques uniques, dont des taux élevés de consommation de drogues injectables (UDI) ainsi qu’une morbidité et une mortalité plus élevées liées aux problèmes hépatiques. L'objectif général de ce travail est d'évaluer l'association entre l’IA, la charge virale du VIH et la numération de cellules CD4 chez les personnes co-infectées par le VIH-VHC, de déterminer si la présence de symptômes dépressifs exerce un effet médiateur sur ces résultats, et de quantifier l’effet direct contrôlé (controlled direct effect) de l’IA ne passant pas par les symptômes dépressifs. Premièrement, des revues systématiques de la littérature ont été menées sur l'association entre l’IA, la charge virale du VIH et la numération de cellules CD4 chez les personnes vivant avec le VIH. Les résultats de la méta-analyse indiquent que les personnes accablées par l’IA étaient en effet plus susceptibles d'avoir une charge virale du VIH détectable au contrôle et une numération de cellules CD4 plus faible par rapport aux personnes qui n'étaient pas en insécurité alimentaire. Deuxièmement, l'association entre l’IA, la charge virale du VIH et la numération de cellules CD4 chez les personnes co-infectées par le VIH-VHC a été évaluée en utilisant les données de la sous-étude « Sécurité alimentaire et VIH-HCV» de la Cohorte Canadienne de Co-infection (CCC). Un modèle structurel marginal pondéré selon la probabilité inverse a été utilisé pour tenir compte des facteurs potentiels de confusion variant dans le temps (time-varying confounders). Les résultats ont démontré que l’IA était fréquente chez cette population et était associée à la fois à une charge virale détectable et à une numération inférieure des cellules CD4. Troisièmement, nous avons estimé si la présence de symptômes dépressifs avait un effet médiateur sur la charge virale du VIH et la numération de cellules CD4. Les résultats ont démontré que la présence de symptômes dépressifs module (mediate) seulement l’effet entre l’IA et la charge virale du VIH. Enfin, une analyse de médiation stochastique a été menée pour quantifier l’effet direct contrôlé exercé par l’IA sur la charge virale du VIH et sur le taux de CD4 en utilisant les symptômes dépressifs comme médiateur. Dans un but de comparaison, l’analyse de l’effet direct contrôlé de l’IA sur la charge virale du VIH et sur le taux de CD4 a aussi été réalisée en utilisant l’adhérence au TARc comme médiateur. Les résultats ont démontré qu’une intervention sur ces médiateurs peut atténuer l'effet néfaste de l’IA sur la charge virale du VIH et sur le taux de CD4. Cependant, l’effet ne peut être éliminé complètement par l’intervention, même en considérant une intervention hypothétique dont l’efficacité est de 100%. Grâce à ce travail, nous avons identifié l’IA comme étant un facteur de risque important d’une charge virale du VIH détectable au contrôle et d’une numération plus faible de CD4 chez les personnes co-infectées par le VIH-VHC. Traiter les causes de l’IA peut aider à améliorer à la fois les états de santé reliés au VIH et au VHC. En outre, les analyses de médiation ont montré d'autres cibles potentielles d’intervention clinique afin de réduire les effets nocifs de l’IA sur la charge virale du VIH et sur la numération des cellules CD4