Effect of Chewing Gums with Different Contents on Salivary Flow Rate, pH and Ion Exchange

Objective: Aim of this study is to examine the effects of chewing gums with different contents on the salivary flow rate, pH and ion exchange in healthy subjects. Material and Method: Twenty healthy individuals with DMFT scores of ≤ 4, who did not use any medication or diagnosed with any systemic disease that could change flow and characteristics of saliva were selected as study sample. The unstimulated saliva of all individuals on day one was collected in sterile test tubes. After 24 hours, saliva stimulated by chewing paraffin was collected from each individual as a control group. Then, five different chewing gums were used for 6 minutes for seven days at 24-hour intervals (Vivident Xylit, Oneo White, Trident Recaldent, Fluogum, CB12 Boost). Saliva samples were collected at 0-1, 1-3 and 3-6 minute intervals in graduated sterile test tubes. The pH of saliva collected at the end of each test period was measured with litmus paper to minimize any time-dependent pH changes. Flow rate was calculated in ml/min. Ion exchanges were evaluated according to the spectrophotometric method. Statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 23.0 statistical program. Statistically significance level was set as p<0.05. Results: Calcium concentration of the collected saliva was found to be higher in the gum group containing tricalcium phosphate than in the other groups. Calcium carbonate containing gum group showed increased salivary flow rate and lower pH when compared to other groups. Conclusion: Chewing gum containing calcium carbonate and tricalcium phosphate may have beneficial effects on the structure of saliva and beneficial effects in terms of oral and dental health. Keywords: Calcium concentration, Chewing gum, Ion Exchange, pH, Salivary flow rat

A new approach to Special Judo Fitness Test index: Relative index

Although judo and wrestling have different rules, these branches are two different Olympic sports branches, partly based on similar basic techniques. For example; the technique called "Ippon-Seoi-Nage" (one shoulder throw) in judo is mechanically the same as the technique called "Arm Throw" in wrestling. The aim of this study was to gain relative special judo fitness test (SJFT) index with a new approach to the SJFT index used in the literature. The maximum number of "arm throw" is required from wrestlers during the tests. The test consists of 3 sets. The sets are 15 sec, 30 sec, and 30 sec, respectively, and rest between the sets is 10 seconds. The heart rate of the wrestlers has recorded at the end of each set of the test and 1 minute after. The wrestlers were classified as the elite and sub-elite group and also as weight classification. Statistical analyses were performed using Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test. There is no statistical difference between elite and sub-elite female wrestlers according to heart rate, the number of "arm throw", SJFT index, and relative SJFT index. On the other hand, there is a statistical difference in relative SJFT index according to weight classifications. Accordingly, lightweight wrestlers have highest relative SJFT index than the other groups. As a result of this study, there was no difference in the weight categories of the wrestlers according to the SJFT index, whereas there was a difference in the weight categories of the wrestlers according to the relative SJFT index. The use of the relative SJFT index to determine the difference between the weight categories will provide more accurate results for performance evaluation

Short and long term outcomes of primary angioplasty in patients aged 75 years and over

The treatment of elderly patients with ST segment elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains controversial. This study aimed to investigate the effects of primary angioplasty in elderly patients on in-hospital and long term major adverse cardiac events (MACE).Materials and methods: From October 2003 to March 2008, we retrospectively enrolled 220 patients aged 75 years and over with STEMI who underwent primary angioplasty. Patients’ characteristics, in-hospital and long term events were recorded.Results: Male/Female ratio of patients was 129/91 and mean age was 78.7 ± 3.6 (range, 75-97) years, and 58.6% of male). Of these patients 29.2% were diabetics, 69.8% were hypertensive, 34.4% were smoker and 43.5% were anemic at admission. Anterior myocardial infarction was diagnosed in 52.3% of patients. Mean pain-balloon time was 222 ± 116 minutes. Eighty two (38.2%) of these 220 patients had three-vessel disease and 12 (5.7%) were diagnosed as cardiogenic shock. Procedural success was observed in 79.6% of patients. Heart failure was observed 27.7% in hospital and intra aortic pump was used in 14.5% of patients. There was no significant difference between age groups in long term major cardiac events and in hospital mortality. Diabetes, leukocyte count at admission and in hospital heart failure were independent predictors of short term MACE and low hemoglobin level at admission and peak CKMB levels were independent predictors of long term MACE.Conclusions: Primary angioplasty in patients aged 75 years and over seems to be associated with low procedural complication, high procedural success, improved short and long term survival

Correlation between depression and eating attitudes and behaviors among those who performed regular physical activitiesDüzenli fiziksel aktivite yapan bireylerde depresyon ve yeme tutum ve davranışları ilişkisi

The current study aimed at identifying correlational status between depression level and eating attitudes and behaviors among those who performed regular physical activities. The study designed in descriptive model was done with relational screening model. The sample of the study was composed of 294 individuals who performed regular physical activities at least three days a week in Afyonkarahisar Province. The data of the study were collected using a questionnaire consisted of Personal Information Form, Eating Attitudes Scale and Beck Depression Inventory. The data were processed with SPSS.  The distribution of the data was assessed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. As a result of test; it was seen that the data did not follow a normal distribution and thus were analyzed with non-parametric tests. For the data analyses; descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U-Test, Kruskal Wallis H- Test and Spearman Correlation coefficients were employed.According to the findings, it was found that those who performed physical activities regularly had no depression and had normal eating behavior in the 72.45%' s of the individuals and abnormal eating behavior  detected in the 27.55% of the individuals. Besides; it was found that there was statistically significant difference in eating attitudes and behaviors in terms of sex variable but there was not statistically significant difference in depression level in terms of sex variable. As for sports history; there was no statistically significant difference in eating attitudes and behaviors while there was statistically significant difference in depression levels.As a result; it was detected that there was a positive relationship between depression levels with eating behavior and attitudes in the individuals who performed regular physical activity. ÖzetBu çalışmanın amacı düzenli fiziksel aktivite yapan bireylerin yeme tutum davranışları ile depresyon düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemektir. Bu çalışma betimsel araştırma türü olup, ilişkisel tarama yöntemi ile yapıldı. Örneklem grubunu Afyonkarahisar ilinde haftada en az 3 gün düzenli fiziksel aktivite yapan 294 birey oluşturdu. Araştırma verileri; kişisel bilgiler, Beck Depresyon Envanteri (BDE) ve Yeme Davranışları Testinden (EAT-26) oluşan anket formu ile elde edildi. Veriler SPSS paket programında değerlendirildi. Verilerin analizinde öncelikle tanımlayıcı istatistikler yapıldı. Verilerin Dağılımı Kolmogorov-Smirnov testi ile değerlendirildi. Test sonucunda verilerin normal dağılım göstermediği saptanmış olup, verilerin analizinde parametrik olmayan testlerden, Mann Whitney U-Testi ve Spearman korelasyon katsayısı kullanıldı.Araştırma sonucunda düzenli Fiziksel Aktivite (FA) yapan bireylerin %72,45’inde “normal yeme davranışı, %27,55’inde ise “anormal yeme davranışı” olduğu saptanmıştır. Bireylerin % 79,93’ünde depresyon olmadığı belirlenmiştir. Cinsiyet’e göre bireylerin yeme davranışlarında farklılık olduğu (p<0,01), ancak depresyon durumlarında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı farklılık olmadığı tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca spor geçmişlerine göre bireylerin yeme davranışlarında bir farklılık olmadığı, depresyon düzeylerinde ise istatistiksel olarak anlamlı farklılık olduğu belirlenmiştir (p<0,05).Sonuç olarak; düzenli FA yapan bireylerin depresyon düzeyleri ile yeme davranışları arasında pozitif bir ilişki olduğu belirlendi

Operational Research: methods and applications

This is the final version. Available on open access from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordThroughout its history, Operational Research has evolved to include methods, models and algorithms that have been applied to a wide range of contexts. This encyclopedic article consists of two main sections: methods and applications. The first summarises the up-to-date knowledge and provides an overview of the state-of-the-art methods and key developments in the various subdomains of the field. The second offers a wide-ranging list of areas where Operational Research has been applied. The article is meant to be read in a nonlinear fashion and used as a point of reference by a diverse pool of readers: academics, researchers, students, and practitioners. The entries within the methods and applications sections are presented in alphabetical order. The authors dedicate this paper to the 2023 Turkey/Syria earthquake victims. We sincerely hope that advances in OR will play a role towards minimising the pain and suffering caused by this and future catastrophes

A spectral Petrov-Galerkin method for thermal convection between rigid plates

A numerical approach to the transition in the problem of thermal convection between rigid plates under the influence of gravity is presented. The approach uses solenoidal basis functions that satisfy the continuity equation and the boundary conditions under a Petrov-Galerkin procedure. A numerical experiment on the linear stability of thermal convection is performed to test the formulation and the implementation

Political consequences of welfare regimes: social assistance and support for presidentialism in Turkey

Tackling redistributive expansion in developing countries, this paper explores broader political consequences of social assistance programmes. Drawing from the Turkish case, where social welfare expanded since the 2000s, it examines attitudes of social assistance beneficiaries towards transition to presidentialism, which was approved in a referendum in 2017, and took effect in 2018. Using the results of an original survey, it indicates that social assistance benefits played a significant role in increasing support for presidentialism, by garnering votes from opposition voters, especially those with high-risk perceptions, in return for benefits. Given the character of Turkish presidentialism, devoid of vital checks and balances, the findings reveal that incumbents can mobilise support by using redistributive instruments in the context of democratic backsliding

PROGRAM ALLOCATION PROCESS IMPROVEMENT BY AN ASSIGNMENT MODEL

As the only source of jet pilot candidates for Turkish Air Force, Air Force Academy (TuAFA) applies several screening processes in order to acquire an average group of 150 cadets from civilian high school graduates each year. Besides the nationwide examinations (YGS-LYS), there are several others such as medical, flight, athletics evaluations and etc. Because the number of criteria for screening is large, the spread of the distribution of YGS-LYS scores of the candidates, which is assumed to be the aptitude towards college education, is a lot wider than those of other universities. Although admission to faculty for civilian high school students is regulated by the YGS-LYS score; in order to provide a balance distribution among different programs in terms of YGS-LYS score, placement to aerospace, electronics, computer and Industrial engineering programs of the Faculty is governed by a special directive. Although the directive considers candidates’ preferences, the ultimate goal of the algorithm in the directive is to keep the balance of academic success among different programs in the allocation process. In this study, we propose an alternative assignment model which tries to minimize the deviations from students’ preferences while maintaining the balance of the distribution among programs. Through simulation from different preference distributions with different number of students, it has been showed that regardless of the number of students and distribution of preferences,first choice allocation performance of the proposed model is significantly better than the directive’s algorithm

Treatment of phthiriasis palpebrarum and crab louse: Petrolatum jelly and 1% permethrin shampoo

WOS: 000215278400032PubMed ID: 26451147Phthiriasis palpebrarum is an uncommon cause of blepharoconjunctivitis in which Pthirus pubis infest the eyelashes. We report a case of unilateral phthiriasis palpebrarum with crab louse. A 45-year-old man presented with conjunctival hyperaemia and moderate itching associated with irritation, and crusty excretions of the eyelashes in the left eye. Careful slit-lamp examination revealed many lice and nits in left eye and mild conjunctival hyperaemia. No abnormality was found in the right eye. On dermatologic examination, only one louse was found at the pubic area. The patient was treated effectively with petrolatum jelly (Vaseline) and 1% permethrin shampoo (Kwellada 1% shampoo). At the end of the firstweek no louse or nitwas present on eyelashes and pubic area