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Aim To compare the early biochemical response and rate of adverse effects in patients who received prednisolone (PRED)/azathioprine (AZA) and those who received budesonide (BUD)/AZA as the first-line treatment for autoimmune hepatitis. Methods The study involved 25 patients receiving PRED 30 mg/day + AZA 50 mg/day and 25 patients receiving BUD 9 mg/day + AZA 50 mg/day from February 2015 to February 2018. Biochemical and hemogram data at baseline and after 6 months of treatment, and adverse effects observed in the follow-up, were compared. Results There was no difference between the groups in biochemical response (17 patients receiving PRED/AZA and 18 receiving BUD/AZA) and the rate of adverse effects (9 patients receiving PRED/AZA and 5 receiving BUD/AZA). The total number of adverse effects in the BUD/AZA group was lower (15 vs 7) and the treatment was discontinued in 2 (8%) patients in PRED/AZA group, while no treatment discontinuation was observed in BUD/AZA group. Conclusions This study showed no differences in biochemical response between the groups. Lower, although not significantly, rate of adverse effects and lower total number of adverse effects indicate that BUD/AZA may potentially be used as the first-line treatment of choice, especially in patients with obesity, diabetes, resistant hypertension, glaucoma, or osteoporosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Resolvins originate from ω-3 PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acid) precursors and play a role in the resolution of inflammation. The aim of this study was to determine the serum Resolvin E1 levels in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and to evaluate the relationship between the serum Resolvin E1 levels and ulcerative colitis disease activity. Methods. In this observational study, serum samples were collected from 51 patients with UC and 30 healthy controls for the determination of Resolvin E1 levels. Firstly, we compared the serum Resolvin E1 levels between the UC patients and the control group. Subsequently, Resolvin E1 levels were analyzed in patients with active UC and UC in remission. Finally, the correlation between Resolvin E1 and C-reactive protein (CRP) and partial Mayo score (p-MS) was analyzed to determine the efficacy of Resolvin E1 in predicting disease activity. Results. Serum Resolvin E1 level was determined in the UC group (3126±1413 ng/ml) and in the control group (2758±1065 ng/ml) (p=0.187). Serum Resolvin E1 levels were determined in patients with active UC (3114±1166 ng/ml) and patients in remission (3132±1520 ng/ml) (p=0.749). In the UC group, a low-grade positive significant association was found between Resolvin E1 and CRP (r=0.303, p=0.031). There was no significant association between Resolvin E1 and partial Mayo score (r=−0.207, p=0.146). Conclusions. There was no sufficient evidence that Resolvin E1 was an appropriate inflammatory marker to determine disease activity in UC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prolonged contact of the esophageal mucosa with food in sigmoid achalasia causes mucosal edema and ulcerations that lead to submucosal fibrosis. The mucosal incision was completed with a triangle knife; however, the area reached following the incision was not the submucosa but the space between the mucosa and the muscularis mucosa. [Extracted from the article]

Abstract: Various model selection criteria such as Akaike information criterion (AIC; ), Bayesian information criterion (BIC; ) and Hannan–Quinn criterion (HQC; ) are used for model specification in autoregressive fractional integrated moving average (ARFIMA) models. Classical model selection criteria require to calculate both model parameters and order. This kind of approach needs much time. However, in the literature, there are proposed methods which calculate model parameters and order at the same time such as reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) method, Carlin and Chib (CC) method. In this paper, we proposed two new methods that are using RJMCMC method. The proposed methods are compared with classical methods by a simulation study. We obtained that our methods outperform classical methods in most cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) have an important impact on the development of new economy but SMEs have a need for venture capital (VC) and initial public offerings (IPOs) in order to grow. Therefore, It is very important to know how owners, managers and employees in the SMEs perceive the VC and IPOs in Turkey. A questionnaire is developed to understand these types of perceptions via focus groups. The questionnaire is distributed to the owners, managers and employees of SMEs that operate in Istanbul Technical University KOSGEB, Bogazici University KOSGEB and Yıldız Technical University KOSGEB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the case of a patient who underwent endoscopic retrieval of swallowed money package. It discusses the symptoms experienced by the patient, the patient's medical history, the difficulty in retrieving the money package, and recommendations from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy for the removal of foreign bodies in the stomach.

The observations of some real time series such as temperature and stock market can take different values in a day. Instead of representing the observations of these time series by real numbers, employing linguistic values or fuzzy sets can be more appropriate. In recent years, many approaches have been introduced to analyze time series consisting of observations which are fuzzy sets and such time series are called fuzzy time series. In this study, a novel approach is proposed to analyze high order fuzzy time series model. The proposed method is applied to IMKB data and the obtained results are discussed. IMKB data is also analyzed by using some other fuzzy time series methods available in the literature and obtained results are compared to results obtained from the proposed method. As a result of the comparison, it is seen that the proposed method produce accurate forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In recent years, artificial neural networks have been used for time series forecasting. Determining architecture of artificial neural networks is very important problem in the applications. In this study, the problem in which time series are forecasted by feed forward neural networks is examined. Various model selection criteria have been used for the determining architecture. In addition, a new model selection strategy based on well-known model selection criteria is proposed. Proposed strategy is applied to real and simulated time series. Moreover, a new direction accuracy criterion called modified direction accuracy criterion is discussed. The new model selection strategy is more reliable than known model selection criteria. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background. Portal hypertensive polyps in patients with portal hypertension are described. Aims. The most significant and serious complication in liver cirrhosis proves to be portal hypertension. Polypoid lesions, which can be seen in the stomach as endoscopic finding in patients with portal hypertension, have not quite been defined in the literature. The aim of this study, therefore, was to define polypoid lesion formation due to portal hypertension in the upper gastrointestinal system in patients with portal hypertension. Study Design. Cross-sectional study. Methods. The study covered a group of patients with liver cirrhosis and a healthy control group that did not have portal hypertension. All individuals covered by the study received upper GI endoscopy, while the endoscopic features and pathological characteristics of the identified polypoid lesions were defined. Standard histological criteria were used in polyp diagnosis. Results. A total of 400 individuals were included in the study. Upper GI endoscopy was performed for 200 patients with liver cirrhosis and another 200 healthy individuals with no portal hypertension in the control group. When the cases were gastroscopically assessed with regard to polypoid lesion presence, it was seen that a total of 87 (21.8%) individuals had polyps. While 67 (33.5%) cirrhotic patients were identified to have polyps, 20 (10%) individuals in the healthy control group had polyps. When the results of those with liver cirrhosis who received esophageal variceal endoscopic band ligation (EVL) and who did not were compared, it was observed that a higher number of individuals in the group with EVL had polypoid lesions. When the patient and control groups were compared as to Helicobacter pylori presence, the results showed that it was slightly higher in the dyspepsia group but the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Conclusion. Portal hypertension-associated polypoid lesions are common in advanced liver cirrhosis cases. The pathological analyses of these polyps pointed out that they were all benign and no malignant cases were detected. It was argued that these polypoid lesions, referred to as portal hypertensive polyps, were associated with elevated angiogenesis in the gastric mucosa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]