Effectiveness of using the word processor in writing classes to enhance revising and editing skills

Ankara : Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University, 1997.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 1997.Includes bibliographical references leaves 107-116Yavuz, DilekM.S

A data mining approach for desire and intention to participate in virtual communities

The purpose of this study is to investigate performances of some of the data mining approaches while understanding desire and intention to participate in virtual communities and its antecedents. A research model has been developed following the literature review and the model was tested afterwards. In research part of the study, some of the data mining approaches as JRip, Part, OneR Method, Multilayer Perceptron (Neural Networks), Bayesian Networks have been used. Based on the analysis conducted it has been found out that Multilayer Neural Network had the best correct classification rate and lowest RMSE

Effects of COVID-19 on sexual health in men with suspected infertility using semen analysis and serum hormone profile: A single-center experience

Aim: To evaluate the effect of COVID-19 on sex hormone levels between men who have recovered from COVID-19 infection and men who have never been infected. Method: This study included 80 men who applied to the Infertility Clinic with a diagnosis of primary or secondary infertility. Semen analysis was performed twice, before COVID-19 and after the treatment of COVID-19 disease. In addition, Luteinizing hormone (LH), Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone (T), and 17β- estradiol (E2) levels were compared between the men after COVID-19 disease and uninfected men. Results: There was a significant difference in progressive sperm motility and immobility before and after the COVID-19 disease. Progressive sperm motility was decreased after COVID-19 disease while immobility was increased after COVID-19. The serum T level was lower and the E2 level was higher in men after COVID-19 disease compared to uninfected men. Conclusions: COVID-19 may adversely affect gonadal functions by causing to more deterioration of the hormone levels and semen parameters in infertile males. Therefore, gonadal function evaluation, including semen and sex-related hormones examination, is required to follow up the male COVID-19 patients with a reproductive plan

Validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the kinesthetic and visual imagery questionnaire- 20

Amaç: Bildiğimiz kadarıyla Türkçe diline çevrilen ve yayınlanan bir imgeleme anketi yoktur. Bu çalışmanın amacı Kinestetik ve Görsel İmgeleme Anketi- 20’nin (KGIA-20) Türkçe diline çevirmek, geçerlik ve güvenirliğini araştırmak idi. Yöntem: Çalışmaya kırk dört kadın ve on beş erkek olmak üzere elli dokuz sağlıklı gönüllü dahil edildi. Anketin Türkçe’ye çevrilmesinin ardından KGIA-20’nin güvenirliği ile iç tutarlılığı test edildi. Test-tekrar test güvenirliğini değerlendirmek ve sınıf içi korelasyon katsayısını (ICC) hesaplamak amacıyla anket tüm katılımcılara iki kez uygulandı. Cronbach alfa değeri, anketin iç tutarlılığını belirlemek için hesaplandı. Anketin yapısal geçerliliğini değerlendirmek için açıklayıcı faktör analizi yapıldı. Bulgular: Cronbach alfa katsayıları tüm anket için kabul edilebilir seviyedeydi (test ve tekrar test için: 0.98 ve 0.98). Anketin bu değeri görsel maddeler için test ve tekrar test değerleri olarak sırasıyla 0.95 ve 0.95; kinestetik maddeler için 0.97 ve 0.96 olarak bulundu. Anketin görsel başlıklar için ICC katsayı değerleri (%95 güven aralığında (GA)) 0.61– 0.90; kinestetik maddeler için ise 0.59– 0.89 olarak bulundu. Faktör analiz sonuçları anketin iki faktörlü yapısının total varyansın %64.21’ini açıkladığını gösterdi. Sonuç: Bu çalışma, KGIA-20’nin Türkçe versiyonunun Türk toplumunda imgelemeyi değerlendiren geçerli ve güvenilir bir araç olduğunu gösterdi.Purpose: As far we know, there is no any imagery questionnaire translated into Turkish and published. The aim of this study was to translate the Kinesthetic and Visual Imagery Questionnaire-20 (KVIQ-20) into Turkish to investigate the validity and reliability. Methods: The study included forty four females and fifteen males, totally fifty nine healthy volunteers. After the questionnaire was translated into Turkish, the reliability and the internal consistency of KVIQ-20 was computed. The questionnaire was applied twice to all participants to evaluate the test-retest reliability and to calculate the "Intraclass Correlation Coefficient” (ICC) value. The Cronbach’s Alpha value was calculated to determine internal consistency. Exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the validity of the questionnaire. Results: The Cronbach’s Alpha value regarding the questionnaire taken as a whole was satisfactory (test-retest: 0.98-0.98). This value was found for visual items 0.95 for test and 0.95 for retest; for kinesthetic items 0.97 for test and 0.96 for retest. Intraclass correlation coefficients for visual items were ranges from 0.61 to 0.90 with 95% confidence interval (CI) and for kinesthetic items were ranges from 0.59 to 0.89. The factorial analyses indicated that two factors explained 64.21% of total variance. Conclusion: This study showed that Turkish version of the KVIQ-20 is a valid and reliable instrument to evaluate the imagery in the Turkish population

The effect of COVID-19 epidemic on the sexual function of healthcare professionals

Studies have shown that healthcare professionals struggling with epidemics develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. The aim of this study is to show how often and severely erectile dysfunction, one of the components of post-traumatic stress disorder, is seen among healthcare professionals during COVID-19 outbreak. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the Index of Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) were applied to 159 male healthcare professionals working in COVID-19 units and a control group of 200 people. Healthcare professional group was divided into subgroups according to occupation (physician, nurse), age-group (18-25, 26-30, >30), marital status and unit of work (Suspected Patient Area, Diagnosed Patient Area). Both stress disorder and erectile dysfunction were seen at higher rates in healthcare professionals group (p < .001). The median IIEF-5 scores of nurses, married subjects and those working in the Diagnosed Patient Area, were found to be higher (p < .001, p = .014, p = .011 respectively). During the COVID-19 outbreak, healthcare professionals are exposed to psychological trauma and their sexual function may be negatively affected. The measures to be taken are important to estimate which groups are more affected

Razine 3-nitrotirozina kod neurotoksičnosti izazvane diklorvosom

The aim of this study was to evaluate dichlorvos toxicity in terms of nitro-oxidative stress by determining 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) levels in the fore, mid, and hindbrain regions in acutely exposed rats. Male Sprague- Dawley rats were randomly allocated to three groups of eight. Group 1 was administered a single intraperitoneal dichlorvos dose of 1.8 mg kg-1 (0.1xLD50) and group 2 a dose of 9 mg kg-1 (0.5xLD50). The control group received 0.5 mL saline solution via the same route. 3-NT and tyrosine (TYR) levels were measured using high performance liquid chromatography with a photodiode array detector (HPLC-PDA) and expressed as a ratio of 3-NT to TYR. The 3-NT/1000 TYR ratios increased significantly in the fore-, mid- and hindbrains of the exposed groups compared to control (p<0.01). In the forebrain, the increase was also significant between the treated groups. Our study has confirmed that acute exposure to dichlorvos leads to nitro-oxidative stress in the brain and that 3-NT may play a role in the mechanism of dichlorvos neurotoxicity.Cilj je ovog ispitivanja bio ocijeniti neurotoksičnost diklorvosa kroz nitrooksidativni stres mjerenjem razina 3-nitrotirozina (3-NT) u prednjem, središnjem i stražnjem režnju mozga akutno izloženih mužjaka štakora Sprague-Dawley, koji su u tu svrhu nasumce bili podijeljeni u tri skupine po osam životinja. Skupina 1 primila je jednokratnu intraperitonealnu dozu diklorvosa od 1,8 mg kg-1 (0,1xLD50), a skupina 2 dozu od 9 mg kg-1 (0,5xLD50). Kontrolna je skupina primila 0,5 mL fiziološke otopine, također intraperitonealno. Razine 3-NT-a i tirozina (TIR) izmjerene su tekućinskim kromatografom visoke djelotvornosti s detektorom s nizom dioda (HPLC-PDA) te su izražene kao omjer 3-NT:TIR. Omjeri 3-NT/1000 TIR značajno su se povećali u svim režnjevima izloženih skupina (1 i 2) u odnosu na kontrolnu skupinu (p<0,01). Povećanje je također bilo značajno u prednjem režnju skupine 2 u odnosu na skupinu 1, ali nije bilo značajne razlike između izloženih skupina u ostalim režnjevima. Naše je istraživanje potvrdilo da akutna izloženost diklorvosu dovodi do nitrooksidativnog stresa u mozgu te da 3-NT sudjeluje u mehanizmu neurotoksičnosti diklorvosa

Does total tumour diameter, multifocality, number of tumour foci, or laterality predict lymph node metastasis or recurrence in differentiated thyroid cancer?

Introduction: Data regarding laterality, focality, or total tumour diameter (TTD) in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) are limited. We aimed to investigate the impact of focality, TTD, number of tumour foci, or laterality on aggressive features in PTC. Material and methods: Patients were categorized based on maximum tumour diameter (MTD) (≤ 10 vs. &gt; 10 mm), focality, laterality, or the number of tumour foci (1/2/ ≥ 3). We also categorized the patients as follows: Group 1, unifocal microcarcinoma (MTD ≤ 10/TTD ≤ 10 mm); Group 2, multifocal microcarcinoma (MTD ≤ 10/TTD ≤ 10 mm); Group 3, multifocal microcarcinoma (MTD ≤ 10/TTD &gt; 10 mm); Group 4, unifocal macrocarcinoma (MTD &gt; 10/TTD &gt; 10 mm); Group 5, multifocal macrocarcinoma (MTD &gt; 10/TTD &gt; 10 mm). Results: The mean diagnosis age (n = 511) was 44.7 (± 12.7) years, the majority of the patients were &lt; 55 years old (n = 310) and female (n = 416). An increasing number of tumour foci were associated with a higher MTD or TTD, a higher ratio of extrathyroidal extension (ETE), vascular or lymphatic invasion, lymph node metastasis (LNM) or distant metastasis, or the need for radioactive iodine (RAI). There was no difference in the parameters between Group 3 and Group 2, or Group 4. Vascular invasion, American Thyroid Association high risk, LNM at diagnosis, and RAI total dose were higher in Group 5 than in Group 3. Microscopic or macroscopic ETE, T1b, and T4a were positive predictors for recurrence. Male sex, multifocality, number of tumour foci (≥ 3), MTD (&gt; 10 mm), TTD (&gt; 10 mm), Group 5, microscopicor macroscopic ETE, lymphatic or vascular invasion, RAI need, T2, and T4b were positive predictors for LNM. Conclusion: MTD and TTD increase the risk of LNM but not the recurrence in PTC. TTD, multifocality, and bilaterality can be considered risk factors in PTC staging systems and risk calculators