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Copyright of Afyon Kocatepe University Journal of Social Sciences / Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Afyon Kocatepe University (AKU) Sosyal Bilimler Enstitusu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development (IJERAD) is the property of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Nigde Omer Halisdemir University Journal of Engineering Sciences / Niğde Ömer Halisdemir Üniversitesi Mühendislik Bilimleri Dergisi is the property of Nigde Omer Halisdemir Universitesi (NOHU), Muhendislik Fakultesi and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of SDU Journal of Engineering Sciences & Design / Mühendislik Bilimleri ve Tasarım Dergisi is the property of Journal of Engineering Sciences & Design and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: Freiberg's disease is mostly characterized by osteonecrosis of second metatarsal head and is widely seen in adolescent women. Metatarsal head restoration technique is a novel surgical procedure intended to protect intact articular surface and regenerate avascular bone under cartilage. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the results and clinical outcomes of metatarsal head restoration technique with those of dorsal closing-wedge osteotomy technique in patients with advanced-stage Freiberg's disease. Methods: In this retrospective study, 60 patients who were operated for Freiberg's disease were evaluated. Patients were divided into two groups as who underwent metatarsal head restoration and dorsal closing-wedge osteotomy. Groups were compared according to "American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society score" (AOFAS), "visual analog score" (VAS) and passive "range of motion" (ROM) score. Results: Thirty-two feet of 29 patients underwent metatarsal head restoration, while 33 feet of 31 patients were subject to dorsal closing-wedge osteotomy. Mean AOFAS score increased from 58.72 ± 6.89 to 89.35 ± 7.43 following metatarsal head restoration, while it increased from 54.13 ± 6.12 to 78.24 ± 6.54 after dorsal closing-wedge osteotomy. Mean VAS score decreased from 6.89 ± 1.18 to 1.33 ± 0.64 after metatarsal head restoration, while it decreased from 6.64 ± 0.92 to 2.71 ± 1.91 following dorsal closing-wedge osteotomy. Mean ROM increased from 12.25° ± 1.65 to 56.28° ± 2.77 after metatarsal head restoration, and it increased from 11.18° ± 0.66 to 47.65° ± 2.05 after dorsal closing-wedge osteotomy (all p < 0.05). In addition, postoperative mean AOFAS (p = 0.044), VAS (p = 0.041) and passive ROM (p = 0.034) scores improvement were found to be statistically significantly better in the metatarsal head restoration group. Conclusion: This study revealed that metatarsal head restoration is a safe and successful surgical technique. It leads to better results than dorsal closing-wedge osteotomy in patients with stages 3–4 Freiberg's disease. Level of evidence: III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environmental crisis has prompted the development of electric vehicles as a green and environmentally friendly mode of travel. Since a reasonable layout of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations is the prerequisite for developing the EV industry, obtaining an optimal and efficient EV charging station planning scheme is a key issue. Although the Chinese government has carried out a plan to build EV charging piles in residential and working places, it cannot properly fulfill the task of matching the charging needs for public transportation vehicles such as electric taxis (ETs). How to evaluate the performance of fast charging stations (FCSs) and how to help find the optimal ET charging station planning scheme are new challenges. In this paper, an improved destination selection model is proposed to simulate the ET operation system and to help find the optimal ET charging station size with statistical analysis based on the charging need prediction. A numerical case study shows that the proposed method can address ET charging behavior well and can help to statistically determine the size of each ET charging station, which should satisfy the constraints on the preset proportion of the ET charging service requests.

Combined heat and power systems are known for their high efficiency. On the other hand, economic dispatching of these systems is very important in terms of total efficiency and reliability of the power system. The novelty of this study is to use the Filled Function Method (FFM) to solve this optimization problem in a way different from that to be found in the literature. Moreover, the Taguchi method is combined with the FFM for the first time to obtain the best initial parameters. So the proposed hybrid deterministic optimization algorithm is called the Taguchi-based Filled Function Method (TFFM). The most important advantage of the suggested TFFM is that it always gives the same result for the same inputs and all the solutions are in the feasible region. The method is applied to four different test systems and the results obtained are compared with those of recent powerful optimization algorithms. With the proposed optimization method, a significant performance increase of 5.676% was achieved. Online supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/0305215X.2022.2034802. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There are studies showing associations between hypovitaminosis D and obesity, obesity and depression, and hypovitaminosis D and depression. This study aims to investigate the relationship between vitamin D levels and depression status of patients followed in an obesity center. Methods: This retrospective study included 107 obesity patients followed up and treated at an obesity center. Patients were divided into two groups as serum 25(OH)D level < 20 ng/mL (deficient) and ≥ 20 ng/mL (not deficient) and compared in terms of Beck Depression Inventory scores. Patients were also divided into two groups according to BDI scores < 17 and ≥ 17, and serum 25(OH)D levels were evaluated. Results: Patients at higher risk for depression (BDI score ≥ 17) had statistically significantly higher weight (p = 0.003) and BMI (p < 0.001), but had significantly lower serum 25(OH)D levels (p < 0.001). The BDI scores were found to be moderately positively related with the BMI (r = 0.404, p < 0.001), weakly negatively related with vitamin D levels (r = -0.383, p < 0.001), weakly positively related with weight (r = 0.293, p = 0.002). The BDI score medians (12 and 8, respectively) were found to be statistically significantly higher in patients with serum 25(OH)D levels of < 20 ng/mL compared to those with ≥ 20 ng/mL (p < 0.001). The increased BMI and decreased serum 25(OH)D levels have been found to independently increase the risk of depression in multivariate logistic regression analysis. The ROC analysis performed to evaluate the discriminative performance of serum 25(OH)D levels in predicting the risk of depression. The analysis showed that the serum 25(OH)D parameter was likely to reveal patients who were at higher risk for depression. For the cutoff point of 25(OH)D ≤ 19.21 level determined by Youden index, the sensitivity was found as 92.86% and the selectivity as 68.82%. Conclusions: In our study, the BMIs were higher and serum 25(OH)D levels were lower in obese individuals at risk for depression. Understanding or explaining the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and depression will contribute to revealing the preventive or therapeutic role of vitamin D supplementation for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bagcilar Medical Bulletin / Bağcılar Tıp Bülteni is the property of Galenos Yayinevi Tic. LTD. STI and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Communication of interconnected power system components with each other and with control centers is provided by using various communication links. However, these links can cause significant time delays (TD) depending on the types, distance and conditions of the communication channel. In addition to temporary time delays caused by the time constants of the components due to system failures, this article draws attention to the negative effects that may be caused by permanent communication time delays in particular, as different from the literature. The communication time delays can disrupt the stable operation of power systems and even cause the whole system to breakdown by making it unstable, when combining with other delays. In the study, the fiber‐optic (F/O) links are assumed to commonly use in supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems and the communication time delays are calculated based on this scenario. However, it is no doubt that less used radio frequency (RF)‐links will create more time delays. Moreover, to eliminate the negative effects of these types of time delays, a novel neural network based‐heuristic fractional order hybrid adaptive proportional‐integral‐derivative (ML‐H‐PIλDμ) controller for multi area load frequency control (LFC) scheme is developed and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and optimization of robust controller parameters are required to improve the controller performances and to keep the stability of load frequency control (LFC) system. In addition, reducing the number of iterations and computational time is very important for swiftly tuning of the controller parameters and the system to reach stability rapidly. For this purpose, this study presents the inserting of heuristic optimization techniques into stability regions method identified in proportional-integral (PI) controllers space for multiarea LFC systems with communication time delays (CTDs). This method consists of two steps: determination of stability region for the system and application of heuristics. Stability region for the system is found via stability boundary locus (SBL) and moth-flame optimization (MFO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), sine cosine algorithm (SCA), slime mould algorithm (SMA) and whale optimization algorithm (WOA) are inserted and applied to this region. In addition, a cost function having time domain specifications is developed for improving the performances of LFC and it is compared with the well-known integral error functions. Also, the robust stability region, which tolerates any system parameter and any time delay variation, is identified and the significance of this region is given for robustness analysis. It is observed from the analyses that better system outputs have been obtained with developed cost function. Steady state errors are minimized and transient state performances are improved with the proposed method. Moreover, desired system performances have been achieved with lower computational time and iteration number (approximately more than about 89% reduced according to classical approach) without deteriorating the stable structure of the system by the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Most people with arthritic knees often present with symmetrical joint involvement, a condition often requiring surgery for both knees. There are, however, some disagreements concerning whether or not total knee arthroplasty should be performed simultaneously or in stages. This study aimed to evaluate the length of hospital stay, the need for erythrocyte suspension transfusion, the need for intensive care, and the mortality rates of the patients who underwent unilateral, simultaneous bilateral, and staged bilateral total knee arthroplasty. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 1,129 patients, who were divided into three groups based on whether they underwent unilateral, simultaneous bilateral, or staged bilateral total knee arthroplasty, and they were evaluated in terms of hospital stay, erythrocyte suspension transfusion needs, intensive care needs, and mortality rates. Results: Of all the patients, 85.5% were women, with the mean age of 67.58±7.23 years; and 75.6% of them underwent unilateral, 19.9% underwent simultaneous bilateral, 4.5% had staged bilateral total knee arthroplasty, 8.8% required ICU care, and 5 patients died. The need for erythrocyte suspension transfusion and length of hospital stay were highest in those who underwent staged bilateral knee arthroplasty surgery, while it was lowest in those who underwent simultaneous bilateral total knee arthroplasty surgery (all p<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in terms of the need for intensive care need, length of stay in intensive care unit and mortality rates between patients who underwent unilateral, simultaneous bilateral, and staged bilateral total knee arthroplasty. Conclusion: Simultaneous bilateral total knee arthroplasty may be preferred in younger patients with bilateral knee osteoarthritis but without risky comorbidities, just as we practiced in our clinic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development (IJERAD) is the property of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Hip fractures, with significant morbidity and mortality, increase day by day with the aging population. Inflammation may play a critical role in addition to deep vein thrombosis due to pulmonary embolism in morbidity and mortality after hip fractures and hip arthroplasty surgeries. The aim of the study is to investigate the impacts of post-operative changes in inflammatory markers such as red blood cell distribution width (RDW), mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on 30-day mortality rates in patients operated for hip fracture. Methods: The data of 231 patients operated for hip fracture at a state hospital, between 2017 and 2020, were evaluated retrospectively. Survivor and non-survivor patients were compared in terms of whether or not they needed intensive unit care, length of hospital stay, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, and test parameters (RDW, MPV, PLR, and NLR). Results: Of the patients, 61% were women and the mean age was 77.2 ± 10.7 years. The 30-day mortality (6 patients in-hospital, 10 patients after discharge) developed in 16 patients (6.9%). The mean age, the incidence of preoperative anemia, ICU hospitalization rate and ICU length of stay increased significantly in non-survivor patients. A statistically significant increase was observed in RDW (p = 0.009), MPV (p < 0.001), NLR (p < 0.001), and PLR (p < 0.001) values in postoperative complete blood count testing in both survivor and non-survivor patients. Among the CBC parameters, only the increase in RDW levels was found to be statistically significant in nonsurvivor patients compared to survivors postoperatively (p < 0.001). The optimal cut-off value for the RDW difference in predicting 30-day mortality was calculated as > 0.8. The increase in preoperative and postoperative RDW differences in multivariate logistic regression was found to be positively associated with 30-day mortality. Conclusions: Detecting the change in RDW levels can be useful and practical for the clinician not only in revealing the patients under risk, but also in the management of such patients. Further prospective and multi-center clinical studies that will support our results and aim to reveal the reason for this change will contribute to the reduction of mortality in such patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel hybrid Taguchi-vortex search algorithm (HTVS) is proposed for solving global optimization problems. Taguchi orthogonal approximation and vortex search algorithm (VS) are hybridized in presenting method. In HTVS, orthogonal arrays in the Taguchi method are trained and obtained better solutions are used to find global optima in VS. Thus, HTVS has better relation between exploration and exploitation, and it exhibits more powerful approximation to find global optimum value. Proposed HTVS algorithm is applied to sixteen well-known benchmark optimization test functions with different dimensions. The results are compared with the Taguchi orthogonal array approximation (TOAA), vortex search algorithm, grey wolf optimizer (GWO), sine cosine algorithm (SCA), moth-flame optimization algorithm (MFO), whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and salp swarm algorithm (SSA). In order to compare the effectiveness of HTVS statistically, Wilcoxon signed-rank test (WSRT) is used in this study. Furthermore, HTVS is applied to two different real engineering problems having some constraints (tension/compression spring design and pressure vessel design). All obtained results suggested that HTVS can find optimal or very close to optimal results. Moreover, it has good computational ability and fast convergence behavior as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development (IJERAD) is the property of International Journal of Engineering Research & Development and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper presents a filled function method to solve economic load dispatch (ELD) of the thermal unit. The proposed method can take care of ELD considering nonlinearity such as valve point loading. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been verified on three different test systems with equality and inequality constraint. Simulation results show that the filled function method is less sensitive to initial values of parameters and is more effective than other previously developed algorithms. In addition, the proposed algorithm is highly promising for the large-scale system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the optimal tuning for the parameters of the power system stabilizer (PSS), which can improve the system damping performance within a wide region of operation conditions to enhance power system stability using artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) based PSS instead of a conventional PSS and particle swarm optimization (PSO) based PSS. The parameters of the optimized PSS are obtained by minimizing a performance index based on integral of the absolute error (IAE) that shows steady state stability of power system. Single machine infinite bus (SMIB) system and two types of excitation system were used for the present work. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed ABC based PSS performs well in damping and quicker response when compared with the other two PSSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to assess the early and mid-term results of patients who had undergone total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and then underwent an isolated tibial insert exchange due to tibial insert fracture and/or melting., Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at the Orthopedics and Traumatology Clinic in a secondary-care public hospital in Türkiye on seven knees of six patients aged 65 years and above who underwent an isolated tibial insert exchange and were followed up for at least six months. Pain and functional assessments of the patients were made with the visual analog scale (VAS) and Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) performed at the last control before the treatment and at the final follow-up visit after the treatment., Results: The median age of the patients was 70.5 years. The median length of time between the primary TKA and the isolated tibial insert exchange was 5.96 years. After isolated tibial insert exchange, the patients were followed for a median of 268 days and a mean of 414 days. The WOMAC pain, stiffness, function, and total indexes were median 15, 2, 52, and 68, respectively, before the treatment. In contrast, the final follow-up WOMAC pain, stiffness, function, and total indexes were median 3 (p = 0.01), 1 (p = 0.023), 12 (p = 0.018), and 15 (p = 0.018), respectively. It was observed that the median VAS, which was "9" preoperatively, showed a statistically significant improvement to become "2" in the postoperative period. A strong negative correlation was found between age and the amount of decline in the total score of the WOMAC pain scale (r = -0.780; p = 0.039). There was a powerful negative correlation between the body mass index (BMI) and the amount of decline in WOMAC pain scores (r = -0.889; p = 0.007). A strong negative correlation was found between the length of time passing between two surgical procedures and the amount of decline in the WOMAC pain score (r = -0.796; p = 0.032)., Conclusion:  Individual patient factors and prosthetic conditions should be considered undoubtedly when determining the best revision strategy in TKA patients. In cases where the components are well-aligned and well-fixed, isolated tibial insert exchange is an alternative to revision TKA since it is less invasive and more cost-effective., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Eke et al.)

Objective: In this study, our aim was to evaluate the results obtained by conservative treatment of femoral neck fracture in patients with untreated Crowe type 4 coxarthrosis with high dislocation., Methods: This was was a retrospective study done at the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Clinic in a secondary care public hospital between 2002 and 2022, in Türkiye. Femur neck fractures were evaluated in six patients who had untreated Crowe type 4 coxarthrosis with high dislocation., Results:  In the study, we had six patients with undiagnosed developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) who suffered femoral neck fractures. The youngest among these patients was 76 years old. Conservative treatment (bed rest, analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and, if needed, opiates and low molecular weight heparin for antiembolic treatment) was found to reduce Harris Hip Score (HHS) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores significantly (p<0,05). Stage 1 sacral decubitus ulcer occurred in two (33.3%) patients. Patients acquired daily activity capacity similar to their situations before fracture within five to six months. None of the patients suffered embolisms and there was no union in the fracture line of the patients.  Conclusion: Based on our data, we think that conservative treatment is a remarkable option for these patients, as the complication risks are low and positive results can be obtained. Thus, we may conclude that conservative treatment can be considered in femoral neck fractures of elderly patients with DDH., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, Akcal et al.)

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate patients who were hospitalized at an orthopaedics and traumatology clinic in a secondary care public hospital in Turkey during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This was a cross-sectional and retrospective study that included a total of 7439 patients - those who had been hospitalized between 11 March 2020, the date of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Turkey, and 10 March 2022 (2949 patients), and those hospitalized in the same clinic between 11 March 2018 and 10 March 2020, designated as the pre-pandemic group (control group; 4490 patients). Patients were divided into three groups: <18 years old, 18-65 years old and >65 years old and compared separately in terms of clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic characteristics as pandemic patients and control group. Results Despite the decline in both the number of admissions to the emergency service and visits to the outpatient clinic among inpatients during the pandemic period, the rate of admissions to the emergency department remained higher than that of the control group throughout the pandemic period (p<0.001). Surgical procedures were lower both numerically and proportionally in the patients who presented during the pandemic than in the pre-pandemic period (p<0.001). While the rate of traumatic surgery was higher in the pandemic group (29%) than in the pre-pandemic group (26.7%), the rate of elective surgery was higher in the pre-pandemic group (71.3%) than in the pandemic one (67.5%) (p=0.037 and p=0.001).The number of patients with fractures in all age groups decreased numerically in the pandemic cohort. While no significant difference was observed between pandemic and pre-pandemic cohorts in terms of the length of hospitalization in all age groups, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) hospitalization rate was found to have increased significantly in adult and elderly patient groups during the pandemic (p<0.001). Conclusion In our study, when the number of patients who underwent orthopaedic surgical treatment, in general, was examined, it appeared that the number of both traumatic and elective surgeries decreased during the pandemic significantly. It was found that the ICU stay rate increased significantly in adult and elderly patient groups during the pandemic. Although there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the patients included in the study, it is known that the pandemic and especially the lockdown periods adversely affected the mental, physical and biological health of individuals. In this context our study will be able to serve as a guide for taking measures like: 1. increasing the ICU capacity of hospitals, 2. providing in-service training to improve the experience of nurses, doctors or other healthcare workers, especially in specialized units such as ICUs, operating rooms and emergency services, considering the number of personnel who may be affected by the pandemic, and 3. ensuring a balanced distribution of orthopaedic operations in private and public hospitals, to reduce the negative effects on orthopaedic health services of other pandemics that may arise in the future., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2023, EKE et al.)