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Asl&inodot;han Candevir,1 Ferit Kuscu,1 Behice Kurtaran,1 Süheyla Kömür,1 Ay&scedil;e Seza &Idot;nal,1 Damla Ertürk,2 Ye&scedil;im Ta&scedil;ova1 1Infectious Diseases, Çukurova University, Adana, Türkiye; 2Infectious Diseases, Health Sciences University Izmir Tepecik Education and Research Hospital, &Idot;zmir, TürkiyeCorrespondence: Asl&inodot;han Candevir, Infectious Diseases Department, Çukurova University Medical School, Adana, Türkiye, Tel +90 5335775954, Email acandevir@gmail.comBackground: Late presentation for HIV care, continues to be a challenge, leading to increased morbidity, mortality, and society costs. The study aimed to determine the rates of late diagnosis (LD) and patient characteristics in Turkey, utilizing the new definition excluding recently infected.Methods: The study included patients admitted to the hospital between 1998 and 2023, with at least 1 year of follow-up. Patients without a CD4 count at their initial admission were excluded. Two definitions of presentation were used: LD, (CD4< 350 cells/mL or AIDS-defining event) and advanced disease (AD), (CD4< 200 cells/mL or AIDS-defining event). Individuals with recent evidence of infection were reclassified as “not late”.Results: Out of the 914 patients meeting the criteria and the analysis focused on 794 treatment-naïve patients, with 90.6% being male and an average age of 36.0 ± 12.0 years. Using the previous definition, 48.9% were diagnosed as late, while the new definition identified 47.2%. A total of 183 patients (23%) were diagnosed with AD, and 25.9% of the diagnoses occurred during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The rate of LD increased during the pandemic compared to before (55.8% vs 44.2%, p=0.005), as did the rate of AD (30.1% vs 20.6%, p=0.007). There was no significant relationship between gender and LD. Patients with LD were older (median ages were 31 vs 36 in groups, p< 0.001), had poorer virological response, higher mortality rates (4.8% vs 1.2%, p=0.003), and shorter survival compared to those without (log rank=0.004).Conclusion: HIV patients with LD have poorer prognosis with older age as well as disruption of health services during the pandemic as risk factors. To improve outcomes, multicenter studies should investigate missed opportunities and specific risk factors in our region, and we should screen at-risk populations, promote awareness among underdiagnosed populations, and advocate testing even in disastrous situations.Plain Language Summary: Late diagnosis of HIV remains a challenge, leading to increased health problems, deaths, and societal costs. This study aimed to determine the rates of late diagnosis and patient characteristics in Turkey, using a new definition that excludes recently infected individuals. The study included 794 treatment-naïve patients, mostly male with an average age of 36 years. With the new definition, 47.2% were diagnosed late, and 23% had advanced disease. The pandemic period saw higher rates of late diagnosis (55.8% vs 44.2%) and advanced disease (30.1% vs 20.6%). Gender did not significantly affect late diagnosis. Patients with late diagnosis were older, had lower CD4 counts, poorer treatment response, higher mortality rates (4.8% vs 1.2%), and shorter survival. Older age and disruptions in healthcare during the pandemic were identified as risk factors for late diagnosis. To improve outcomes, multicenter studies should investigate missed opportunities and specific risk factors, while focusing on screening high-risk populations, raising awareness among underdiagnosed groups, and promoting testing even during challenging situations.Keywords: human immunodeficiency virus, HIV, late diagnosis, new definition, risk factors

Professional development is the essential part of education. Rapid development globaly, technology dominated our life. Language teaching and learning was mainly shaped by the digital mode and this necessiates teacher educators to relay on webinars to maintain professional exchange and networking during pandemic. Even after, it seems that webinars continue to be a part of professional lives. However, not many studies have been conducted about its impact on teacher educators. Given that a great amount of time and effort is invested in preparing and attending professional webinars, it is a good time to hear the participants' voices. With this in mind, a total of 115 English language teacher educators were requested to evaluate their webinar-attending experiences. The data were collected through an online survey and focus group interviews. Participants mentioned that webinars generaly are male keynote-speaker dominated, need improvement and propose some implications to increase the effectiveness of future webinars.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is recognized as essential in preparing EFL students for their professional careers. Understanding students' perceptions and needs in ESP courses can provide significant insights for improving ESP programs and training for ESP practitioners. This study investigated university students' needs and learning experiences in ESP courses, focusing on course content, course hours, exams, materials, instructor adequacy, feedback effectiveness, and overall teaching quality. Students' opinions were gathered through a 27-item questionnaire, with responses collected from 107 EFL students across various departments. Data analysis included frequency analysis, independent samples t-tests, and one-way ANOVA, with responses to the open-ended questions coded using Maxqda 20. Findings show that although participants expressed overall satisfaction with ESP courses, they highlighted concerns about the lack of authentic materials, integrated language skills, and skill-based activities. Improvements in field-related knowledge and vocabulary were identified as critical. The open-ended responses revealed diverse opinions and highlighted the need for better integration of language skills, particularly speaking, and a demand for enhanced instructor training. The issues highlighted in this study reflect broader, global challenges in ESP, consistent with findings from other studies. Based on these findings, the authors suggest several implications for ESP practitioners and program developers.

The ability of individuals to feel part of their culture highly depends on the extent to which they can use their native language and how they can manage linguistic processes. In this context, regardless of occupation or age, one needs to use the language in daily communication--an element maintaining the social order--correctly and in accordance with the language-specific rules. The aim of this study was to explore language awareness among undergraduate sports sciences students. A total of 205 students enrolled at schools of sports sciences in Istanbul, 64.9% (n = 133) were males and 35.1% (n = 72) were females, voluntarily participated in the research. We collected the data using a demographic information form and the "Everyday Language Awareness Scale". The 5-point Likert-type scale consists of 17 items within four sub-scales. While showing the frequencies of the responses to the scale items, we used an independent-samples t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze the participants' scores by their demographics. We calculated Cronbach's alpha for the total score to be 0.86. Overall, we concluded that the participants had significantly higher awareness of the Turkish language by their total and subscale scores.

The aim of the study is to determine the beliefs of those who learn Turkish as a foreign language about learning grammar and to determine whether their beliefs are in line with their perceptions of grammar. In this study, which was created using the mixed method, the data about the beliefs of the learners in accordance with the survey method was collected, which is one of the basic quantitative research methods. In addition, the data for the determination of learners' perceptions were collected in accordance with one of the qualitative research methods--the phenomenology method. The study group of this research consists of B1, B2, and C1 level students who learn Turkish at Aydin TÖMER (Turkish Teaching Application and Research Center), Istanbul Aydin University. Based on the findings obtained in the research, 45% of the learners believe that they can learn Turkish without knowing the grammar while 37% believe that they cannot. When the beliefs about grammar-learning method are examined, it is seen that 27% of the learners have the belief that it is important to learn grammar directly, and 63% believe that it is more important to understand the rules based on examples. In the context of all of this data, it was concluded that there is a parallelism between the grammar-learning beliefs of those who learn Turkish as a foreign language and their grammar perceptions. In other words, those who think that they cannot learn Turkish without knowing grammar also perceive grammar as difficult, a necessity, and produce metaphors for it. In addition, it was understood that those who believe that they can learn Turkish without knowing grammar perceive grammar as a tool and produce metaphors and provide reasons.