Search

Olives can be used both for table consumption or oil production. For table consumption, curing olives is an ancient process that turns the naturally bitter raw fruit into a deliciously salty, tart snack. This study is aimed to investigate table olive characteristics of raw and processed olives from six cultivar candidates. Cultivar candidates were developed by cross breeding between Gemlik and Edinciksu cultivars. Olive from Gemlik cultivar, genitor and widespread produced table olive cultivar in Turkey, was used for comparison. Fruit and seed size with weight, water content, titratable acidity, pH, hardness, color along with oleuropein absorbance (K345) value, salt, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and sensory analysis were studied on both raw and processed olives. Results showed that the average fruit weight, titratable acidity, oleuropein absorbance value, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of raw and processed olives of genotypes were found between 4.3-6.5 and 3.9-6.0 g, 0.27-0.38% and 0.33-0.59%, 1.08-2.52 and 0.16-0.26, 175.22- 463.15 and 91.00-113.23 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 g, 2618.73-4296.23 and 130.29-147.26 µM trolox/kg, respectively. Statistically significant difference was observed between raw and processed olive for salt, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity, oleuropein absorbance and hardness. It might be caused by genetic factors, which affect skin and tissue permeability of olives during processing. Result of this study showed that there were differences on physical and chemical characteristics og genotypes and GE379 had highest total phenol content, GE397 had highest fruit weight and second highest total sensory scores and GE366 had highest sensory appearance, taste general appreciation and total scores among processed olives. GE366 and GE397 had more remarkable characteristics for production with spontaneous fermentation than other samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the self-confidence levels of nursing students and the factors related to such self-confidence. Data were obtained via a questionnaire for socio-demographic characteristics and a 'Self-Confidence Scale' prepared by the researchers. High self-confidence levels were noted in 78.6% of female students and 92.3% of male students. While 84.5% of second-year students had high self-confidence levels, this rate was 76% in fourth-year students. Female nursing students were significantly less self-confident than male students. Self-confidence should be nurtured in a caring nursing curriculum; however, there is a lack of clarity as to what confidence means, how it is perceived by students and what educators can do to instil self-confidence in nursing students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Second primary malignancy (SPM) is associated with decreased overall survival (OS) in laryngeal carcinomas (LC)., Methods: One hundred eighty three LC patients were analyzed retrospectively. The primary and secondary endpoints were the incidence of SPM and the OS difference between patients with and without SPM., Results: SPM developed in 22 (12.0%) patients at median 52 months (range, 4-131 months), with a yearly 2.8% incidence, of which 19 (10.4%) and 3 (1.6%) were metachronous and synchronous, respectively. Lung was the commonest SPM (72.7%). Of 47 deaths, 12 (25.5%) were SPM related. Comparatively SPM patients had significantly shorter median OS (68.0 months vs. median not reached; P = 0.005), with lower 5-year (67.0% vs. 78.9%) and 8-year (32.6 vs. 69.8%) survival rates., Conclusion: The present findings suggested the SPM as a competing risk factor for death in index LC patients with its annual incidence rate of 2.8% and for accounting one of every four deaths in this patients group. Emergence of lung carcinoma as the most frequent type of SPM and the ability to treat >50% of them with an estimated long-term outcomes emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis and curative treatment of SPMs., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of laser photobiomodulation (PBM) and topical ozone therapy on the reepithelialization of palatal donor site wounds through clinical assessment and computer-aided image analysis and to assess the patient morbidity following free gingival graft (FGG) surgeries., Material and Methods: Thirty-six patients requiring FGG were randomly allocated into three groups: laser group (n = 12), ozone group (n = 12), and control group (n = 12). Epithelialization was evaluated by applying 3% hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) to the wound area and also measured by using digital image analysis (ImageJ). Bland-Altman plots were used for assessing agreement between H 2 O 2 and ImageJ measurements. Parameters in relation to patient morbidity were assessed by using visual analog scale (VAS) on the first 3, 7, 14, and 30 days postoperatively., Results: At day 14, statistically significant smaller wounds were observed with digital image analysis in the ozone group as compared with the control group (p = 0.034). However, intergroup comparison of the remaining wound area evaluated by the clinician using the H 2 O 2 method did not reveal any significant differences (p > 0.05). Nonetheless, according to Bland-Altman analysis, the lower and upper limits showed a moderate agreement between the two measurement methods. The mean VAS sores exhibiting postoperative discomfort was observed to be significantly higher in the control group compared with the laser group (p = 0.002) and ozone group (p < 0.001) at day 7., Conclusions: Adjunctive ozone therapy could have a significantly beneficial effect on the acceleration of palatal wound healing following FGG procedures. Both PBM and ozone treatment modalities reduced postoperative discomfort as compared with spontaneous healing.

Background: There are increasing data about microRNAs (miRNA) in the literature, providing abundant evidence that they play important roles in pathogenesis and development of colorectal cancer. In this study, we aimed to investigate the miRNA expression profiles in surgically resected specimens of patients with recurrent and non-recurrent colorectal cancer., Materials and Methods: The study population included 40 patients with stage II colorectal cancer (20 patients with recurrent tumors, and 20 sex and age matched patients without recurrence), who underwent curative colectomy between 2004 and 2011 without adjuvant therapy. Expression of 16 miRNAs (miRNA-9, 21, 30d, 31, 106a, 127, 133a, 133b, 135b, 143, 145, 155, 182, 200a, 200c, 362) was verified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in all resected colon cancer tissue samples and in corresponding normal colonic tissues. Data analyses were carried out using SPSS 15 software. Values were statistically significantly changed in 40 cancer tissues when compared to the corresponding 40 normal colonic tissues (p<0.001). MiR-30d, miR-133a, miR-143, miR-145 and miR-362 expression was statistically significantly downregulated in 40 resected colorectal cancer tissue samples (p<0.001). When we compared subgroups, miRNA expression profiles of 20 recurrent cancer tissues were similar to all 40 cancer tissues. However in 20 non-recurrent cancer tissues, miR-133a expression was not significantly downregulated, moreover miR-133b expression was significantly upregulated (p<0.05)., Conclusions: Our study revealed dysregulation of expression of ten miRNAs in Turkish colon cancer patients. These miRNAs may be used as potential biomarkers for early detection, screening and surveillance of colorectal cancer, with functional effects on tumor cell behavior.

To compare the prevalence of cervical human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in Turkish women with normal Papanicolaou (Pap) smear and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). In between March 2002 and November 2005, the study was designed as case-control study. Cytologic abnormalities in Pap smears were classified according to the Bethesda System (2001). Identification of the presence of HPV was carried out by the Hybrid Capture II test for all patients. To compare the groups, Chi-square test was used. A total of 1353 reproductive aged women were screened. Of them, 1344 (99.3%) had normal or class I Pap smear. Remaining nine cases (0.7%) had CIN at several degrees (five CIN I, three CIN II, and one carcinoma in situ). While all these nine cases with cervical pathologies had HPV, only 20 cases from the other group (1.5%) had HPV (chi(2) 466.1; P = 0.0001). This is the first study of the evaluation of the association between HPV and preinvasive cervical lesions in Turkish population. In spite of low general frequency (2.1%) of cervical HPV colonization in this population, a strong correlation was found between HPV and CIN.

Both conventional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and a new type of electrophoretic screening procedure indicate that the polymorphic albumin variants Naskapi, found chiefly in the Naskapi Indians of Quebec, and Mersin, found in the Eti Turks of southeastern Turkey, are molecularly identical or very similar and that the amino acid substitution site in these variants is located between residues 330 and 446. This discovery is consistent with a genetic relationship between the Eti Turks and American Indians. We also report a new variant found in the Eti Turks, albumin Adana, which migrates similarly to albumin B on conventional gels but which our new system shows to differ from the common albumin A and albumin B by a substitution between residues 549 and 585.