The Combination of Fibromyalgia and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Fibromyalgia is a disease characterized by widespread pain accompanied by sleep disorders, affective impairments, chronic fatigue, functional deficiency and emotional disorders. Sleep disorders in FMS patients have been widely reported in literature. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a syndrome characterized by repeated periods of upper respiratory tract obstruction and frequently a reduction in blood oxygen saturation during sleep. To make a diagnosis and define severity with the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI), it is necessary to conduct a polysomnography (PSG) study throughout the night. OSAS cases suffer from frequent sleep disruption, are unable to enter the deep sleep phase and cannot physically rest. Therefore, as both OSAS and FMS cases have sleep disorders with symptoms such as a need for daytime sleep and headaches in the morning, it is thought that there may be a relationship between OSAS and FMS. The case is here presented of a 43-year old female FMS patient with symptoms including an 8-year history of widespread pain and fatigue, inability to get up in the mornings, excessive sleepiness during the day and snoring, who was determined with moderate level OSAS as a result of polysomnography examination

The influence of vitamin D deficiency on eradication rates of Helicobacter pylori

Background. Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy improves the healing of various gastro-duodenal diseases such as chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer, and also reduces gastric cancer incidence. Several studies have reported on risk factors other than antibiotic resistance related to Helicobacter pylori eradication failure. Objectives. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether or not the serum levels of 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH)D) influence eradication rates of H. pylori. Material and methods. 220 patients diagnosed with H. pylori gastritis using endoscopic biopsy had their 25-OH vitamin D levels measured via the electrochemiluminescence method before beginning eradication therapy of H. pylori. Gastric biopsies obtained at endoscopy were examined for H. pylori strains and histopathologic findings. All patients were treated with bismuth-containing quadruple therapy for 14 days. H. pylori eradication was determined via the 14C-urea breath test performed 4 weeks after the end of therapy. Based on the 25-OH vitamin D levels, the patients were divided into 2 groups: group 1 (deficient) had a vitamin D level of = 10 ng/mL. Results. Eradication was successful in 170 (77.2%) patients and failed in 50 (22.7%) patients. The prevalence of 25(OH)D deficiency was 30.5%. Mean 25(OH)D levels were significantly lower in the eradication failure group compared to the successful treatment group (9.13 +/- 4.7 vs 19.03 +/- 8.13; p = 0.001). There were significantly more patients with deficient 25(OH)D levels in the failed treatment group compared to the successful treatment group (p = 0.001). Conclusions. Our findings suggest that 25-OH vitamin D deficiency may be considered a risk factor related to eradication failure of H. pylori, which may lead to a need for supplementation of vitamin D before eradication of H. pylori

Comparison of rectus femoris architecture and somatotype between well-trained bodybuilders and soccer players

Objective: Training has different adaptive effects on muscle architecture and body types in the long term. The purpose of this study was to compare rectus femoris architecture and somatotypes of well-trained bodybuilders and soccer players. Material and Methods: A total of thirty male athletes (15 bodybuilders and 15 soccer players, with at least 5 years of training experience) were included in the study. The thickness of the rectus femoris muscle (MT), pennation angle (PA), and fascicle length (FL) were measured using B-mode ultrasound and somatotyping has been performed by the Heath-Carter method. Results: PA (19.1%, p=0.007) and MT (11.5%, p=0.039) were greater in bodybuilders than soccer players, while FL was similar (5%, p=0.220) between athletes. A moderate effect size (ES) was found at MT (ES = 1.06; 95% CI) and a large ES at PA (ES = 1.55; 95% CI). Somatotyping has revealed that bodybuilders were endomorphic mesomorph (3.01-5.74-2.05) and soccer players were mesomorph-ectomorph (2.52-3.58-3.80). Conclusion: Training affects muscle morphology and somatotype of athletes with regard to sport specific training patterns in long term. Revealing the adaptive characteristics of muscle architecture and somatotypes may help sports scientists and coaches in train planning and modification

The Relationship of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Helicobacter Pylori

[No Abstract Available

Rola organizacji pozarządowych w Turcji w procesie akcesji do Unii Europejskiej

Civil Society and the EU membership are one of the subjects discussed by political and intellectual groups in Turkey. In today’s Turkey, where significant steps are being taken in the process of accession to the European Union, the importance of the effects of non-governmental organizations on Turkey’s democratization is enormous. European Union attributes great significance to civic society and non-governmental organizations in the development of participatory democracy in Turkey. It is known that European Union demonstrates its enthusiasm in this regard through funding or other support mechanisms. In this study, Turkey’s experiments in the process of democratization and the roles the non-governmental organizations have played in this process will be investigated. On the other hand, what roles non-governmental organizations have assumed in order to establish participatory democracy, the projects such institutions have implemented and the support the European Union has given in this regard will be studied.Społeczeństwo obywatelskie i członkostwo w Unii Europejskiej są obecnie tematami często dyskutowanymi w tureckich kręgach politycznych i intelektualnych. W dzisiejszej Turcji, w której podejmowane są znaczące kroki na drodze akcesji do Unii Europejskiej, niezwykle ważny jest wpływ organizacji pozarządowych na rozwój demokracji. Także Unia Europejska przypisuje duże znaczenie społeczeństwu obywatelskiemu i organizacjom pozarządowym w rozwoju demokracji uczestniczącej w Turcji. Demonstrowane jest to poprzez środki pomocowe i inne mechanizmy wspierające. W artykule przedstawiono tureckie doświadczenia związane z procesem demokratyzacji oraz rolę, jaką odgrywają w nim organizacje pozarządowe. Zbadano postawę, jaką te organizacje przyjęły w celu ustanowienia w Turcji demokracji uczestniczącej, pokazano wdrożone projekty przygotowane przy wsparciu Unii Europejskiej

Choice of technology and scale of

M.S. - Master of Scienc

Bilgi işlemede duygusal ve semantik önceliğin incelenmesi

Duygusal ve bilişsel önceliğin doğrudan karşılaştırıldığı çalışmalarda genellikle semantik bilginin görsel nesnenin duygusal değerlendirmesinin hazırlayıcısı olduğu ve semantik işlemenin duygusal analizden önce geldiği önerilmektedir. Bu çalışmalarda genellikle duygusal ve semantik sınıflandırma görevleri kullanılmaktadır. Bu görevlerin teşhis bilgisi miktarının ve kolaylık - zorluk gibi özelliklerinin farklı olmasının, sonuçlar üzerinde etkili olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu temelde tez çalışmasının birinci amacı, semantik bilgi işlemenin duygusal bilgi ile kıyaslandığında öncelikli olup olmadığının aynı - farklı karar verme (AFK) görevi kullanılarak incelenmesidir. İkinci amacı ise bir bilgi türünün öncelikli işlenmesi durumunda, içinde bulunulan bağlamın öncelikli işleme üzerinde herhangi bir etkisinin bulunup bulunmadığının belirlenmesidir. Bu amaçlar doğrultusunda yürütülen deneylerde AFK görevinin iki farklı türü kullanılmıştır: (i) Semantik görevde katılımcılardan cinsiyete bağlı olarak aynı - farklı değerlendirmelerini yapmaları istenmiştir. (ii) Duygusal görevde aynı - farklı kararları verilirken dikkate alınması istenen özellik ise uyarıcının yansıttığı duygudur. Uyarıcı olarak mutlu ve korku yansıtan kadın ve erkek yüz fotoğrafları Karolinska Duygusal Yüz Fotoğraflarından ön çalışma sonuçlarına göre seçilmiştir. Ön çalışmada yüz fotoğrafları katılımcılara tek başına sunulmuş ve katılımcılardan sunulan yüz fotoğraflarına ilişkin semantik sınıflandırma ve duygusal değerlendirme görevlerini yapmaları istenmiştir. Böylece hem cinsiyet hem de duygu açısından doğru bir şekilde tanınan ve işleme süreleri açısından birbirine benzer uyarıcılar AFK görevinde kullanılmak üzere seçilmiştir. Hedef uyarıcı sunum süresi açısından farklılaşan ilk iki deneyde duygusal ve semantik bilgi işleme önceliği karşılaştırılmıştır. Bilgi işleme önceliğinde bağlamın rolü ise üç ayrı deneyde incelenmiştir. Duygusal ve semantik bağlamın manipüle edilmesi için sınıflandırma görevlerinden yararlanılmıştır. Sonuçlara göre görsel uyarıcının işlenmesi için yeterli süre olması durumunda duygusal ve semantik görevler arasında herhangi bir fark gözlenmemiştir. Tersine katılımcıların sunulan uyarıcılara ilişkin kısıtlı süreleri olduğunda duygusal karşılaştırma görevinde doğruluk oranı açısından performans daha yüksektir. Benzer şekilde farklı bağlamlarda duygusal karşılaştırma semantik karşılaştırmadan daha doğru yapılmıştır. Sonuçlar duygusal bilginin semantik bilgi ile kıyaslandığında daha öncelikli işlendiğine işaret etmektedir.Studies directly comparing cognitive and affective primacy suggest that semantic information precedes affective evaluation of visual stimuli. These studies generally use semantic and affective categorization tasks, which may be different in terms of difficulty and diagnostic information. The first aim of the present study is to investigate whether semantic information has processing priority over affective information by using same - different judgment (SDJ) task. The second aim is to examine that whether the processing priority depends on the context in which stimuli are encountered. In experiments, two types of SDJ task were used: (i) In the semantic task, participants were instructed to judge whether or not the two simultaneously presented facial expressions (target stimuli) were same or different in gender dimension. (ii) In the affective task, participants were asked to compare facial expressions according to emotion dimension. The stimuli (happy and fearful expressions) were chosen from Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces according to the results of a pilot study. In the pilot study, facial expressions were presented singly, semantic categorization and affective evaluation tasks were conducted. Thus, the stimuli, which were detected for both gender and emotion accurately in similar processing times, were selected to use in SDJ task. Affective primacy versus semantic primacy were compared directly in the first two experiments that differs in terms of target stimulus presentation time. And the other three experiments were conducted to examine the role of different contexts on the processing priority. To manipulate the context, affective and semantic categorization tasks for visual scenes / words were used. As a result, while participants have enough time to process facial expressions, there is no differences between semantic and affective judgment performance. Conversely, participants have judged more accurately for affective comparison when the presentation time is limited. In addition, the affective comparison was judged more accurately than semantic comparison in the different contexts. The results suggest that affective information has priority over semantic information