10 research outputs found
Fast Moving Consumer Goods: Competitive Conditions and Policies
Fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) constitute a large part of consumers' budget in all countries. The retail sector for FMCGs in Turkey is in the process of a drastic transformation. New, "modern" retail formats, like chain stores and hyper/supermarkets, have rapidly diffused in almost all major urban areas, and increased their market share at the expense of traditional formats (grocery shops, green groceries, etc.) in the last couple of decades. This rapid transformation has raised concerns about competitive conditions in the sector. This study is aimed at to shed light on competitive conditions prevailing in the FMCGs retail trade sector in Turkey. We analyze how the structure of the market is being transformed in recent years by new retail formats. The study is focused on the analysis of competitive dynamics (inter-firm rivalry, pricing and non-price policies, barriers to entry, regulatory conditions, etc.) within the sector, and draws lessons for competition policy.FMCG, competition policy, Turkey
Endovascular embolization of intermittent massive epistaxis secondary to post-traumatic carotid artery pseudoaneurysms
PubMedID: 23409553Epistaxis is a very common medical problem in otolaryngology practice and can usually be controlled with conservative interventions. Rarely, uncontrolled and life threatening epistaxis occurs. We present the case of a 29-year-old male who developed intractable intermittent epistaxis due to post-traumatic pseudoaneurysms arising from the cavernous segment of the left internal carotid artery. The patient was successfully treated with endovascular embolization
Succinivibrionaceae is dominant family in fecal microbiota of Behcet's Syndrome patients with uveitis
Behcet's Syndrome (BS) is a multisystem vasculitis with various clinical
manifestations. Pathogenesis is unclear, but studies have shown genetic
factors, innate immunity and autoinflammation to have an important role
in the disease course. Diversity in the microbial community of gut
microbiota may significantly contribute to the activation of the innate
immune system. The clinical features of BS present themselves in
clusters and each cluster may be a consequence of different disease
mechanisms. For this reason we aimed to investigate the gut microbiota
of BS patients with uveitis. In addition to healthy controls, we have
aimed to compare the gut microbiota of BS with that of Familial
Mediterranean Fever (FMF) and Crohn's Disease (CD) as both diseases have
innate and autoinflammatory features in their pathogenesis. Seven
patients with BS, 12 patients with FMF, 9 patients with CD and 16
healthy controls (HC) were included in the study. Total genomic DNAs
were isolated from fecal samples of the patients. Partial 16S rRNA gene
was sequenced using the PGM Ion Torrent (Thermo Fisher Scientific,
Waltham, MA, USA) for microbiota analysis. Statistical analysis showed
that significant differences were detected on the microbial community of
four groups. Succinivibrionaceae is dominant and the signature family,
whereas Bacteroides was absent in BS patients
Salvage Treatment Experience in Advanced Synovial Sarcoma: a Multicenter Retrospective Analysis of the Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology
Background: We aimed to evaluate prognostic factors and response rates to various treatment approaches to patients with synovial sarcoma in an advanced setting. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 55 patients (18 pts; 32.7% women) diagnosed with synovial sarcomas. Twenty had metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis while the remainder of the study group consisted of patients who developed metastatic or inoperable locally advanced disease during follow up. Results: The median follow up time was 15 months (range: 1-53). Regarding outcomes for the 55 patients, 3 and 5 year overall survival rates were 26% and 14%, respectively. In univariate analyses among demographic factors female gender was associated with a better outcome (p=0.030). Patients with early progressing disease (<2 years) had a worse prognosis when compared to patient group with late relapse, but this difference did not reach statistical significance (p=0.056). According to multivariate Cox regression analysis patients who had undergone metastasectomy had a significant survival advantage (p=0.044). The overall response rate to different salvage chemotherapy regimens given as second line treatment was around 42.9-53.9% for all regimes. There were no statistically significant differences between chemotherapy regimens given in either second or third line settings in terms of overall survival. Conclusions: We observed no major differences in terms of response rate and survival between different salvage chemotherapy regimens. Although metastatic disease still carries a poor prognosis, metastasectomy was found to be associated with improved surviva
LRIG2 mutations cause urofacial syndrome
Urofacial syndrome (UFS) (or Ochoa syndrome) is an autosomal-recessive disease characterized by congenital urinary bladder dysfunction, associated with a significant risk of kidney failure, and an abnormal facial expression upon smiling, laughing, and crying. We report that a subset of UFS-affected individuals have biallelic mutations in LRIG2, encoding leucine-rich repeats and immunoglobulin-like domains 2, a protein implicated in neural cell signaling and tumorigenesis. Importantly, we have demonstrated that rare variants in LRIG2 might be relevant to nonsyndromic bladder disease. We have previously shown that UFS is also caused by mutations in HPSE2, encoding heparanase-2. LRIG2 and heparanase-2 were immunodetected in nerve fascicles growing between muscle bundles within the human fetal bladder, directly implicating both molecules in neural development in the lower urinary tract