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Chemical control is the most common method used to control Agonoscena pistaciae Burckhardt & Lauterer (Hemiptera: Psyllidae). This study compared the application of the five most widely used insecticides in the management of A. pistaciae which has resulted in significant yield losses, in Siirt (Kurtalan) and Şanlıurfa (Birecik) in 2023. Active ingredients spinetoram, lambda-cyhalothrin, deltamethrin, sulfoxaflor, and spirotetramat were examined in the study. The study was designed with four replications, and its characters were formed by the insecticides registered concentration and the control. The plots measured 3 x 3 = 9 trees. Nymph and adult counts were conducted from the middle trees before, as well as 7, 14, and 21 days after application following the application of the spray. The Henderson-Tilton formula was used to analyze the counting data for nymph or adult counts in each plot of leaf samples. All registered active ingredients effected the A. pistaciae above %80 all count days. Among the active ingredients the biological efficacy of spirotetramat was the highest compared to other insecticides. These active ingredients can be used to control A. pistaciae, with consideration given to the pest's potential resistance to insecticides and the impact of the ingredients on natural enemies.

Aim: Several imaging techniques are in use for diagnosis and risk assessment in patients with suspected stable coronary artery disease (S-CAD). Measurement of global longitudinal strain (GLS) by two-dimensional speckle tracking (2D-STM) is a more accurate and reliable technique compared to transthoracic echocardiography. It provides a quantitative measure of left ventricular function. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the relationship between resting layer-specific longitudinal strain values and severe coronary lesions in patients with suspected S-CAD. Materials and Methods: A total of 242 patients with suspected S-CAD were included in this study. They were scheduled for elective coronary angiograph. Patients were divided into two main groups: with (n=117) and without severe coronary artery disease (CAD) (n=125). Layer-specific GLS values were compared between groups as mid-myocardial, endocardial and epicardial layers, using 2D-STM. Results: This study showed that GLS values of all layers were significantly lower in patients with severe CAD compared to controls (p

Aim: The literature on the effects of the fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) association with hepatitis C virus (HCV) on quality of life and vitamin D levels is limited. We aimed to evaluate the frequency of fibromyalgia in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) and also to analyze the relationship between the presence of fibromyalgia and vitamin D parameters. Methods: This controlled, cross-sectional study of 123 participants (72 patients with HCV and 51 in the control group) was conducted in a tertiary hospital. The study enrolled age- gender and BMI-matched control groups. Patients were diagnosed with fibromyalgia and arthritis as per the 2010 American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria. Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) and the level of vitamin D were performed in all patients. Results: The presence of fibromyalgia, the level of vitamin D and the score of FIQ were statistically different between HCV (+) and control groups. The score of social isolation was higher in the HCV (+) group, whereas all other scores were similar in both groups according to the NHP scale. Based on the presence or absence of fibromyalgia, all scores of FIQ and NHP scales were higher in a subgroup with fibromyalgia. This study documented a prevalence of 56.9% of FMS in patients with HCV (+) in comparison to the control group Conclusion: This study documented a high prevalence of 56.9% of FMS in patients with HCV (+) in comparison to the control group. While emphasizing raising awareness of fibromyalgia, its relationship with HCV, vitamin D, quality of life, age, gender, BMI, and tender points was revealed via regression analysis.

Bupivacaine is frequently used in daily practice for local anesthesia. The cardiotoxic and arrhythmic effects of bupivacaine are known. Acute allergic attacks and electrocardiographic changes associated with bupivacaine have not been reported in the literature. Kounis syndrome presents with the clinical picture of acute myocardial infarction following an acute allergic attack. Coronary angiography was planned for the patient, who had a known coronary artery bypass graft, with the diagnosis of unstable angina pectoris. After subcutaneous bupivacaine injection applied to the radial area, severe chest pain and electrocardiography changes occurred. No acute occlusive lesion was detected in coronary angiography. In this article, bupivacaine-associated kounis syndrome will be presented.

Abstract While some clinics have adopted abbreviated neoadjuvant treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer, there remains a shortage of comprehensive clinical data to support this practice. This is a retrospective, multicenter study. A total of 142 patients were included in the study who are HER2-positive breast cancer, aged ≤ 65 years, with left ventricular ejection fraction ≥ 50%, received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and underwent surgery at 10 different oncology centers in Türkiye between October 2016 and December 2022. The treatment arms were divided into 4–6 cycles of docetaxel/trastuzumab/pertuzumab for arm A, 4 cycles of adriamycin/cyclophosphamide followed by 4 cycles of taxane/TP for arm B. There were 50 patients (35.2%) in arm A and 92 patients (64.8%) in arm B. The median follow-up of all of the patients was 19.9 months (95% CI 17.5–22.3). The 3-year DFS rates for treatment arms A and B were 90.0% and 83.8%, respectively, and the survival outcomes between the groups were similar (p = 0.34). Furthermore, the pathologic complete response rates were similar in both treatment arms, at 50.0% and 51.1%, respectively (p = 0.90). This study supports shortened neoadjuvant treatment of HER2-positive breast cancer, a common practice in some clinics.

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the development of flux-driven Josephson Parametric Amplifiers (JPAs) as Quantum Noise Limited Amplifier for axion search experiments conducted at the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research (CAPP) of the Institute for Basic Science. It focuses on the characterization, and optimization of JPAs, which are crucial for achieving the highest sensitivity in axion particle detection. We discuss various characterization techniques, methods for improving bandwidth, and the attainment of ultra-low noise temperatures. JPAs have emerged as indispensable tools in CAPP’s axion search endeavors, playing a significant role in advancing our understanding of fundamental physics and unraveling the mysteries of the Universe.

Abstract Susceptibility to infectious diseases such as COVID-19 depends on how those diseases spread. Many studies have examined the decrease in COVID-19 spread due to reduction in travel. However, less is known about how much functional geographic regions, which capture natural movements and social interactions, limit the spread of COVID-19. To determine boundaries between functional regions, we apply community-detection algorithms to large networks of mobility and social-media connections to construct geographic regions that reflect natural human movement and relationships at the county level in the coterminous United States. We measure COVID-19 case counts, case rates, and case-rate variations across adjacent counties and examine how often COVID-19 crosses the boundaries of these functional regions. We find that regions that we construct using GPS-trace networks and especially commute networks have the lowest COVID-19 case rates along the boundaries, so these regions may reflect natural partitions in COVID-19 transmission. Conversely, regions that we construct from geolocated Facebook friendships and Twitter connections yield less effective partitions. Our analysis reveals that regions that are derived from movement flows are more appropriate geographic units than states for making policy decisions about opening areas for activity, assessing vulnerability of populations, and allocating resources. Our insights are also relevant for policy decisions and public messaging in future emergency situations.

Abstract Background Using human mobility as a proxy for social interaction, previous studies revealed bidirectional associations between COVID-19 incidence and human mobility. For example, while an increase in COVID-19 cases may affect mobility to decrease due to lockdowns or fear, conversely, an increase in mobility can potentially amplify social interactions, thereby contributing to an upsurge in COVID-19 cases. Nevertheless, these bidirectional relationships exhibit variations in their nature, evolve over time, and lack generalizability across different geographical contexts. Consequently, a systematic approach is required to detect functional, spatial, and temporal variations within the intricate relationship between disease incidence and mobility. Methods We introduce a spatial time series workflow to investigate the bidirectional associations between human mobility and disease incidence, examining how these associations differ across geographic space and throughout different waves of a pandemic. By utilizing daily COVID-19 cases and mobility flows at the county level during three pandemic waves in the US, we conduct bidirectional Granger causality tests for each county and wave. Furthermore, we employ dynamic time warping to quantify the similarity between the trends of disease incidence and mobility, enabling us to map the spatial distribution of trends that are either similar or dissimilar. Results Our analysis reveals significant bidirectional associations between COVID-19 incidence and mobility, and we develop a typology to explain the variations in these associations across waves and counties. Overall, COVID-19 incidence exerts a greater influence on mobility than vice versa, but the correlation between the two variables exhibits a stronger connection during the initial wave and weakens over time. Additionally, the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and mobility undergoes changes in direction and significance for certain counties across different waves. These shifts can be attributed to alterations in disease control measures and the presence of evolving confounding factors that differ both spatially and temporally. Conclusions This study provides insights into the spatial and temporal dynamics of the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and human mobility across different waves. Understanding these variations is crucial for informing the development of more targeted and effective healthcare policies and interventions, particularly at the city or county level where such policies must be implemented. Although we study the association between mobility and COVID-19 incidence, our workflow can be applied to investigate the associations between the time series trends of various infectious diseases and relevant contributing factors, which play a role in disease transmission.

We report an extensive high-sensitivity search for axion dark matter above 1 GHz at the Center for Axion and Precision Physics Research (CAPP). The cavity resonant search, exploiting the coupling between axions and photons, explored the frequency (mass) range of 1.025 GHz (4.24 μeV) to 1.185 GHz (4.91 μeV). We have introduced a number of innovations in this field, demonstrating the practical approach of optimizing all the relevant parameters of axion haloscopes, extending presently available technology. The CAPP 12 T magnet with an aperture of 320 mm made of Nb_{3}Sn and NbTi superconductors surrounding a 37 l ultralight-weight copper cavity is expected to convert Dine-Fischler-Srednicki-Zhitnitsky axions into approximately 10^{2} microwave photons per second. A powerful dilution refrigerator, capable of keeping the core system below 40 mK, combined with quantum-noise-limited readout electronics, achieved a total system noise of about 200 mK or below, which corresponds to a background of roughly 4×10^{3} photons per second within the axion bandwidth. The combination of all those improvements provides unprecedented search performance, imposing the most stringent exclusion limits on axion-photon coupling in this frequency range to date. These results also suggest an experimental capability suitable for highly sensitive searches for axion dark matter above 1 GHz.

Background: Coronary care units are sophisticated clinics established to reduce deaths due to acute cardiovascular events. Current data on coronary care unit mortality rates and predictors of mortality in Turkey are very limited. The MORtality predictors in CORonary care units in TURKey (MORCOR-TURK) trial was designed to provide information on the mortality rates and predictors in patients followed in coronary care units in Turkey. Methods: The MORCOR-TURK trial will be a national, observational, multicenter, and noninterventional study conducted in Turkey. The study population will include coronary care unit patients from 50 centers selected from all regions in Turkey. All consecutive patients admitted to coronary care units with cardiovascular diagnoses between 1 and 30 September 2022 will be prospectively enrolled. All data will be collected at one point in time, and the current clinical practice will be evaluated (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT05296694). In the first step of the study, admission diagnoses, demographic characteristics, basic clinical and laboratory data, and in-hospital management will be assessed. At the end of the first step, the predictors and rates of in-hospital mortality will be documented. The second step will be in cohort design, and discharged patients will be followed up till 1 year. Predictors of short- and long-term mortality will be assessed. Moreover, a new coronary care unit mortality score will be generated with data acquired from this cohort. Results: The short-term outcomes of the study are planned to be shared by early 2023. Conclusion: The MORCOR-TURK trial will be the largest and most comprehensive study in Turkey evaluating the rates and predictors of in-hospital mortality of patients admitted to coronary care units.

Objective: A multi-modal approach to fibromyalgia syndrome is necessary as it is affected by emotional, cognitive, and behavioral factors. In this context, hypnosis is one of the treatment methods used in fibromyalgia. However, studies on the use of hypnosis in fibromyalgia have mostly been conducted with short treatment durations of self-hypnosis. For this reason, we aimed to conduct this study in which the hypnosis sessions were face-to-face and the treatment duration was longer. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five patients who met the fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria published in the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2016 and whose medical treatment was planned were included in the study. A total of 20 patients completed the study (10 hypnosis group and 10 control group). No additional treatment was applied to the control group other than medical treatment and exercise recommendations. In addition to medical treatment and exercise, patients in the hypnosis group received face-to-face hypnosis therapy once a week for 60 min, a total of 10 sessions. Evaluations of the patients before the treatment and in the 3rd month after the treatment were made with the pain score and the fibromyalgia disease activity score. Results: Ages 18–65 years, with widespread pain for at least 3 months, according to ACR 2016 fibromyalgia diagnostic criteria; A total of 20 patients with fibromyalgia, 10 in the hypnosis treatment group and 10 in the control treatment group completed the study. When the 3rd month Visual Analog Scale (VAS) and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) values of the group receiving hypnosis treatment were compared with the control group, a statistical difference was found (P < 0.001). When the pre-treatment VAS and FIQ values of the group receiving hypnosis treatment were compared with the 3rd month values, a statistically significant improvement was found (respectively; P = 0.006, P = 0.005). When the pretreatment and 3rd month VAS and FIQ values of the control group were compared, no statistical difference was found (P = 0.063). Conclusions: Hypnosis treatment is effective in reducing pain and increasing daily life activities in fibromyalgia patients, and no side effects were reported. It can be considered a complementary treatment within the multimodal approach in fibromyalgia patients.

Nowadays businesses transform into the faster, less costly, more flexible, and qualified structure because of developing world economy and fierce competition environment with each passing day. Outsourcing as one of the most essential concepts related to strategic management is considered to meet all the aforementioned conditions. In fact, logistics enterprises composing the main theme of this study tend to the outsourcing like other businesses and prefer it to increase the competitive power and specialized in main area of activity. Despite outsourcing in logistics enterprises provide numerous opportunity and advantage, some risks and problems emerge in case of not achieving the desired accordance and coordination. In this context risks and problems caused by the outsourcing for enterprises operated in international logistics activities in Giresun province are determined and ranked via the q-rung orthopair fuzzy subjective weighting as one of the multi-criteria decision analysis approaches. According to the results, essential risks and problems caused by the outsourcing for logistics enterprises were found as “Loss of control over the outsourcing firm”, “Inaccurate sales pitches”, “Layoffs” and “Unfulfilled contract provisions” respectively.

Introduction: Impaired lung function and decreased exercise capacity may have seen in COVID-19. Therefore, the importance of pulmonary rehabilitation stands out. YouTube has been used often for information about health. The aim of the study is to evaluate the content and the quality of YouTube videos of pulmonary rehabilitation in COVID-19. Method: In this cross-sectional study, the keywords were determined and searched in YouTube by two researchers. A total of 282 videos were watched. Video sources, contents, duration, view number, likes, dislikes, and comments were recorded. For assessment of quality, the Global Quality Scale (GQS) and for reliability the Modified DISCERN reliability tool was used. Results: After application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 135 videos were analyzed. According to the GQS, 27 (20%) of videos were low, 47 (34.8%) of medium, and 61 (45.2%) of high-quality. Non-physician Health personnel shared the most videos (31.1%). The high-quality video source was Non-physician health personnel, Physician, Academic/university, and Health-related website. There was a statistically significant difference in DISCERN score between quality groups and the highest score was in the high-quality group (p

The circular economy is a sustainability model that reduces environmental impacts and enables products to be recycled effectively. In this respect, the clothing sector is one of the sectors that has the highest environmental impact in the circular economy system. In this study, drivers and challenges of circular economy in clothing sector were analyzed with SWARA and BWM methods. The results show that the SWARA and BWM methods are quite similar and can be used by decision makers. In both methods, " Cost savings from conservation in resources" as the driver of the circular economy and "lack of training and knowledge" as a challenge took the first row. This study shows the lack of awareness and legitimacy for the institutionalization of the circular economy approach in the clothing industry in Turkey, will be useful in other developing and transition economies and improve the functioning of vision is considered.

Determining the key characteristics of a ship during the concept and preliminary design phases is a critical and intricate process. In this study, we propose an alternative to traditional empirical methods by introducing a model to estimate the main particulars of diesel-powered Z-Drive harbor tugboats. This prediction is performed to determine the main particulars of tugboats: length, beam, draft, and power concerning the required service speed and bollard pull values, employing Bayesian network and non-linear regression methods. We utilized a dataset comprising 476 samples from 68 distinct diesel-powered Z-Drive harbor tugboat series to construct this model. The case study results demonstrate that the established model accurately predicts the main parameters of a tugboat with the obtained average of mean absolute percentage error values; 6.574% for the Bayesian network and 5.795%, 9.955% for non-linear regression methods. This model, therefore, proves to be a practical and valuable tool for ship designers in determining the main particulars of ships during the concept design stage by reducing revision return possibilities in further stages of ship design.

Background: Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus consistently threatens global public health. A better understanding of the virus' circulation mechanism is needed for future epidemic prevention. Previous studies have focused on the correlations between the presence of H5N1 virus and wild bird populations, domestic poultry production, and sociodemographic factors. However, human cultural landscapes and their impact on H5N1 spread have not been adequately explored. Methods: Using 196 HA gene sequences of H5N1 influenza viruses from Indonesia with district-level geographic information, we performed Monmonier barrier and Louvain community detection analyses to explore how human ecological factors impact the circulation of virus and identify barriers to or corridors of dispersal. Results: Spatial discontinuity in the genetic characteristics identified by the Monmonier algorithm were found to mirror the differences in key landscape factors. Our Louvain community detection analysis also found the co-existence of different geographic circulation patterns. The community detection analysis suggests that direct human-related interactions such as poultry transportations between remote areas may result in similar viruses spreading in two distant regions whilst dense localities supported genetically heterogeneous viruses in geographically adjacent areas. Conclusion: Human ecological landscapes shape the circulation mechanism of H5N1 virus in multiple ways contingent upon local context. Physical and cultural barriers may impede its movement between adjacent areas, while natural or human-induced corridors such as wild bird flyways and poultry production networks facilitate its spread between geographically distant areas. Further focus on the importance of cultural landscapes has great potential for increasing our understanding of the circulation of pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in Southeast Asia.

FlowMapper.org is a web-based framework for automated production and design of origin-destination flow maps. FlowMapper has four major features that contribute to the advancement of existing flow mapping systems. First, users can upload and process their own data to design and share customized flow maps. The ability to save data, cartographic design and map elements in a project file allows users to easily share their data and/or cartographic design with others. Second, users can generate customized flow symbols to support different flow map reading tasks such as comparing flow magnitudes and directions and identifying flow and location clusters that are strongly connected with each other. Third, FlowMapper supports supplementary layers such as node symbols, choropleth, and base maps to contextualize flow patterns with location references and characteristics. Finally, the web-based architecture of FlowMapper supports server-side computational capabilities to process and normalize large flow data and reveal natural patterns of flows.

Molecular reuptake is a nature-inspired channel clearance strategy to mitigate intersymbol interference (ISI) in molecular communications. Reuptake is especially important if the communication medium is not cleared of the information-carrying molecules by other means, and if it is not done properly, it decreases the maximum signal rate. In a more practical sense, in nature, reuptake failure may be detrimental to the organisms. Many neurological disorders, including schizophrenia, are related to problems with the reuptake mechanisms in synaptic molecular communications (SMC). To understand the evolutionary solution to the ISI, we start with the glutamate reuptake process as part of SMC. We develop a stochastic approach to the reuptake problem and derive analytic expressions for the probability of absorption for rectangular volumes. To test the validity of perfectly absorbing boundary approximation for real systems, we derive the rate of first incidence and average glutamate transport time for EAAT2, the most prevalent transport molecule. When applied to SMC, our results indicate that perfectly absorbing boundaries assumption is not possible according to the available physiological data, due to the limited number of transporters and the finite amount of time a transporter requires to reuptake a glutamate molecule.

Large scale, multi-organisational collaborations between researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds are increasingly recognised as important to investigate and tackle complex real-world problems. However differing expectations, epistemologies, and preferences across these teams pose challenges to following best practice for ensuring high-quality and rigorous qualitative research, while maintaining goodwill and team cohesion across team members. This article presents critical reflections from the real-world experiences of a team navigating the challenges of collaborating on a large-scale, cross-disciplinary interview study. Based on these experiences, we extend the literature on large team qualitative collaboration by highlighting the importance of balancing autonomy and collaboration, and propose eight recommendations to support high quality research and team cohesion. We identify how this balance can be achieved at different times: when centralised decision-making should be prioritised, and autonomy can be allowed. We argue that prioritising time to develop shared understandings, build trust, and creating positive environments that accept and support differing researcher perspectives on qualitative methods is paramount. By exploring and reflecting on these differences, teams can identify how and when to support autonomy in decision-making, when to move forward collaboratively, and how to ensure that shared processes reflect the needs of the whole team. The reflexive findings, emanating from practical experience, can inform large research teams undertaking qualitative studies to explore complex issues. We make an original contribution to qualitative methods research by arguing that balancing autonomy and collaboration is the key to promoting high quality research and cohesion in large teams.

Supply chain management (SCM) is deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic besides breakdowns occurred in all sectors. Nowadays, managers need techniques for protecting supply chains from serious and costly disruptions, establishing permanent relationships with the customers and partners and preventing breakdowns throughout the process. Each firm needs to determine SCM strategies to be prepared for breakdowns in an intense competitive environment. With COVID-19, the change in business and trade environments has taken a different dimension, and it has revealed a new relationship between the efforts to perpetuate supply chains and strategies for supply chain management and enabled new models. In this study, it is aimed to prioritize the factors that lead to SCM breaks needed in project management and the realization of projects, and to choose the most successful SCM strategy considering COVID-19. For this purpose, rough SWARA was used for weighting factors and rough MARCOS was used for the alternative selection. According to the findings, the transportation capacity factor was found to be the most important factor leading to SCM breakdowns. The most ideal supply chain management strategy has been the “collaborative supply chain management strategy.” In the food manufacturing sector, the study can be considered as a roadmap in terms of preventing supply chain management breaks during the COVID-19 process and helping to ensure a sustainable production. As another theoretical and practical importance of the study, it is aimed to propose a robust, powerful, and practical decision-making model that can cope with the current uncertainties.

In the tourism sector, where competition conditions are getting stiffer, some of the essential factors to hotels stay operational include the need to achieve a sustainable structure and meet the needs and expectations of customers. One of the ways to ensure that the customer expectations and needs are met at the desired level is through service quality factors which are considered to increase customer satisfaction.This study aims to establish the service quality criteria in three-star hotels in Erzurum and to rank the importance levels of the determined criteria. The SWARAmethod was used to weight the determined criteria.The results of the SWARAmethod show that the “Price Availability” was the most important service qualitycriteria in three-star hotels. This was followed by "Courtesy and Respect Level", "Reliability", "Service and Process Flexibility", "Restaurant Service Quality" and "Cleanliness" respectively. The criteria considered as the least important include "Quality of Housekeeping" and "Front Office Service Quality".

Local studies and modeling experiments suggest that shallow groundwater and lateral redistribution of soil moisture, together with soil properties, can be highly important secondary water sources for vegetation in water-limited ecosystems. However, there is a lack of observation-based studies of these terrain-associated secondary water effects on vegetation over large spatial domains. Here, we quantify the role of terrain properties on the spatial variations of dry season vegetation decay rate across Africa obtained from geostationary satellite acquisitions to assess the large-scale relevance of secondary water effects. We use machine learning based attribution to identify where and under which conditions terrain properties related to topography, water table depth, and soil hydraulic properties influence the rate of vegetation decay. Over the study domain, the machine learning model attributes about one-third of the spatial variations of vegetation decay rates to terrain properties, which is roughly equally split between direct terrain effects and interaction effects with climate and vegetation variables. The importance of secondary water effects increases with increasing topographic variability, shallower groundwater levels, and the propensity to capillary rise given by soil properties. In regions with favorable terrain properties, more than 60% of the variations in the decay rate of vegetation are attributed to terrain properties, highlighting the importance of secondary water effects on vegetation in Africa. Our findings provide an empirical assessment of the importance of local-scale secondary water effects on vegetation over Africa and help to improve hydrological and vegetation models for the challenge of bridging processes across spatial scales.

Bu çalışmanın amacı mesleki ve teknik ortaöğretim kurumlarında bilişim teknolojileri ve elektrik-elektronik teknolojisi alanlarında okuyan öğrencilerin, alan öğretmenlerinin ve eğitimi yapan işletme yetkililerinin işletmelerde beceri uygulamalarına dönük beklentileri ile bu uygulamaların verimliliğini belirlemek ve sorunların çözümüne yönelik öneriler üretmektir. Çalışma, ölçeklerin ve görüşme formunun kullanıldığı karma araştırma yöntemi ile yürütülmüştür. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Amasya ilindeki meslek liselerinin, Mesleki Eğitim Kanunu’na göre beceri eğitimi uygulamasına katılan, bilişim teknolojileri ve elektrik-elektronik teknolojisi alanları 12. sınıf öğrencileri, alan öğretmenleri ve eğitimi yürüten işletme yetkilileri oluşturmaktadır. Çalışmaya 170 öğrenci, 41 alan öğretmeni ve 34 işletme yetkilisi katılmıştır. Araştırmada öğrenci ve öğretmenlere “İşletmelerde Beceri Eğitiminde Karşılaşılan Sorunlar” ölçeği, işletme yetkililerine de görüşme formu uygulanmıştır. Öğrenci ve öğretmen ölçekleri işletme, mevzuat, okul, öğrenci ve öğretmen olmak üzere beş faktörden oluşmaktadır. Çalışmanın sonuçlarına bakıldığında; öğretmen ve öğrencilere göre işletme, mevzuat, okul, öğrenci ve öğretmen faktörlerinde sorunlar yaşanmıştır. Bununla birlikte, işyerlerinde yürütülen beceri eğitimi faaliyetlerinde karşılaşılan problemlere ilgili öğretmen düşüncelerinde, alan ve cinsiyet değişkenlerine göre anlamlı bir farklılık oluşmazken, mesleki kıdem değişkenine göre işletme, mevzuat, okul ve öğretmen ölçeği ortalamasında anlamlı bir farklılık görülmüştür. İşyerlerinde yürütülen beceri eğitimi faaliyetlerinde karşılaşılan problemlerle ilgili öğrenci düşüncelerinde, alan değişkenine göre okul faktöründe anlamlı bir farklılık görülmüştür. İşletmelerde beceri eğitimi uygulamalarında öğrenciler kendi alanında, eğitim birimi olan ve öğretim programına uyabilecek işyerlerine yerleştirilmeye çalışılmalıdır.

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of subclinical thyroid dysfunction and the relationship between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women. METHODS: 300 postmenopausal women screened for osteoporosis between January 2018 and December 2019 in Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases were included in the study. Demographic data, thyroid -stimulating hormone (TSH), free triiodothyronine (fT3) and free thyroxine (fT4) levels and bone mineral densitometry (BMD) measurements of all participants were recorded retrospectively from the hospital registry system. All participants were divided into 3 groups as euthyroid, subclinical hyperthyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism. The euthyroid group was also divided into two groups, those with high normal TSH and low normal TSH. Subclinical thyroid dysfunction was defined as subclinical hyperthyroidism and subclinical hypothyroidism. Individuals with overt hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism were excluded from the study. RESULTS: Subclinical thyroid dysfunction was detected in 10.66% of postmenopausal women [subclinical hyperthyroidism: 21 (7%); subclinical hypothyroidism: 11 (3.66%)]. No statistically significant difference was found in subjects with subclinical thyroid dysfunction in terms of vertebral (L1-4) and femoral bone mineral density compared to the euthyroid group. (p=0.67 and p= 0.18; respectively). Among the subgroups with high normal TSH levels and low normal TSH levels in the euthyroid group, the frequency of osteoporosis, vertebral (L1-4) and femoral BMD measurments were similar (p=0.93, p=0.85, p=0.73, respectively). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: We found no significant associations between subclinical thyroid dysfunctions and BMD in postmenopausal women.

Objectives: “Nosocomial infections” or “healthcare-associated infections” are a significant public health problem around the world. This study aimed to assess the rate of laboratory-confirmed healthcare-associated infections, frequency of nosocomial pathogens, and the antimicrobial resistance patterns of bacterial isolates in a University Hospital. Methods: A retrospective evaluation of healthcare-associated infections in a University Hospital, between the years 2015 and 2019 in Tekirdag, Turkey. Results: During the 5 years, the incidence densities of healthcare-associated infections in intensive care units and clinics were 10.31 and 1.70/1000 patient-days, respectively. The rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia, central line–associated bloodstream infections, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections in intensive care units were 11.57, 4.02, and 1.99 per 1000 device-days, respectively. The most common healthcare-associated infections according to the primary sites were bloodstream infections (55.3%) and pneumonia (20.4%). 67.5% of the isolated microorganisms as nosocomial agents were Gram-negative bacteria, 24.9% of Gram-positive bacteria, and 7.6% of Candida . The most frequently isolated causative agents were Escherichia coli (16.7%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (15.7%). The rate of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production among E. coli isolates was 51.1%. Carbapenem resistance was 29.8% among isolates of P. aeruginosa , 95.1% among isolates of Acinetobacter baumannii , and 18.2% among isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae . Colistin resistance was 2.4% among isolates of A. baumannii . Vancomycin resistance was 5.3% among isolates of Enterococci. Conclusion: Our study results demonstrate that healthcare-associated infections are predominantly originated by intensive care units. The microorganisms isolated from intensive care units are highly resistant to many antimicrobial agents. The rising incidence of multidrug-resistant microorganisms indicates that more interventions are urgently needed to reduce healthcare-associated infections in our intensive care units.

Abstract Hydrological interactions between vegetation, soil, and topography are complex, and heterogeneous in semi‐arid landscapes. This along with data scarcity poses challenges for large‐scale modeling of vegetation‐water interactions. Here, we exploit metrics derived from daily Meteosat data over Africa at ca. 5 km spatial resolution for ecohydrological analysis. Their spatial patterns are based on Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) time series and emphasize limiting conditions of the seasonal wet to dry transition: the minimum and maximum FVC of temporal record, the FVC decay rate and the FVC integral over the decay period. We investigate the relevance of these metrics for large scale ecohydrological studies by assessing their co‐variation with soil moisture, and with topographic, soil, and vegetation factors. Consistent with our initial hypothesis, FVC minimum and maximum increase with soil moisture, while the FVC integral and decay rate peak at intermediate soil moisture. We find evidence for the relevance of topographic moisture variations in arid regions, which, counter‐intuitively, is detectable in the maximum but not in the minimum FVC. We find no clear evidence for wide‐spread occurrence of the “inverse texture effect” on FVC. The FVC integral over the decay period correlates with independent data sets of plant water storage capacity or rooting depth while correlations increase with aridity. In arid regions, the FVC decay rate decreases with canopy height and tree cover fraction as expected for ecosystems with a more conservative water‐use strategy. Thus, our observation‐based products have large potential for better understanding complex vegetation‐water interactions from regional to continental scales.