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Aim: Drug intoxications and drug uses are public health problems and an important reason for patient admission to emergency departments and intensive care units (ICU).This study aims to evaluate the demographic and clinical data of acute drug intoxications and drug use. Methods: Patients followed up in the ICU for acute drug intoxications and drug use between January 2014 and January 2020 were evaluated retrospectively. Results: A total of 194 patients were included in the study, including 168 drug intoxication and 26 drug use. While 59.5% of drug intoxications were female, the mean age was 27.8±8.3 years, 92.3% of drug use was male, and the mean age was 26.5±3.8 years. While the mean duration of stay in the ICU was 2.3±1.2 days for drug intoxications, it was 2.8±1.9 days for drug use. The highest rate of drug intoxication was between the ages of 17-30, and 98.8% of them were suicidal. Most of the intoxications (61.9%) occurred with multiple drugs, most commonly with analgesics (40.4%) and antidepressants (34.5%). The mortality rate of drug intoxication was 0.6%, and the mortality rate of drug users was 11.5%. While male gender and mechanical ventilation (Mv) requirement were significantly higher in drug use, Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores at discharge and hospitalization were significantly lower (p

Introduction: Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide; several risk factors have been identified as major underlying causes for developing this condition. Optic disc hemorrhage has been identified as a risk factor for the development and progression of primary open-angle glaucoma, as well it has been related to playing an important role in normal-tension glaucoma. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Colombia among hypertensive and diabetic patients. This study included 2,067 subjects older than 50 years who were attended by a group of ophthalmologists in six cities in Colombia who conducted a complete medical and ophthalmological examination and applied standardized questionnaires and interviews aiming to evaluate participant’s health conditions and lifestyles. Results: We found a prevalence of Optic disc hemorrhage (ODH) of 0.4%. ODH presented an OR: 8.82 (95% CI 1.60 - 48.52) for the presence of Glaucoma. Patients diagnosed with systemic hypertension had an OR: 0.02 (95% CI 0.00 - 0.96); Patients with Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Defect (RNFL) presented an OR: 509.40 (95% CI 8.60 - 30152.97) for the presence of ODH and 50% of patients with ODH did not have a diagnosis of glaucoma. Conclusions: Despite the low prevalence of ODH in our study (0.4%), its presence is a High-risk factor for the presence of Glaucoma. RNFL defect is also highly related to ODH and the presence of Glaucoma.

Introduction: Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is one of the uncommon cardiovascular disorders with a clinical spectrum ranging from asymptomatic cases to myocardial infarction. Atherosclerosis plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of CAE. Recently, it has been determined that the atherogenic index of plasma (AIP) is a strong predictive marker for atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is a relationship between obstructive CAE and AIP in patients with non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS). Materials and methods: In this retrospective study, hospital electronic patient records were retrospectively examined. A total of 213 NSTE-ACS patients were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups according to non-obstructive and obstructive CAE. The AIP value was compared between groups and regression analysis evaluated whether it is an indicator to predict the risk of obstructive CAE. Results: The AIP value was found to be numerically and statistically significant in the obstructive CAE group compared to the non-obstructive CAE group. The multivariate logistic regression analysis identified AIP as a predictor of obstructive CAE in NSTE-ACS patients in the receiver operating curve analysis, AIP values above 0.33 had 90% sensitivity and 68% specificity to predict obstructive CAE in NSTE-ACS patients. Conclusions: AIP values were increased in the presence of obstructive CAE in NSTE-ACS patients. Our findings suggest that AIP may be involved in the pathogenesis of obstructive CAE.

Objective: Number of pregnancy has a positive correlation with the development of lower limb venous insufficiency. We purpose to reveal the relation between the venous insufficiency in pregnancy and concomittant gestational features. Method: A retrospective analysis was performed using data collected from the database of our institution between January 2016-January 2021. 35 patients were included. The informations about age, in vitro fertilisation usage, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), free T4 (fT4) and TSH levels, gestational diabetes mellitus (DM), other features and reports of Doppler ultrasound (USG) were investigated. Quantitative variables were analysed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The relation between qualitative variables were analysed using x2 test. Descriptive statistics of qualitative variables were considered as mean±standard deviation, median (25-75 percentile), minimum-maximum. Descriptive statistics of quantitative variables were considered as frequency (%). P

Karotis arter cerrahisinde endarterektomi ve eversiyon metotları semptomatik veya asemptomatik hastalarda inme ve mortalite oranını azaltmaya yönelik uygulanan düşük riskli altın standart tedavi yöntemleridir. Serebral hipoperfuzyon ve iskeminin erken tespiti için yakın kızılötesi spektroskopi (NIRS) yöntemi ile rejyonel serebral oksijen saturasyonu (rSO2) ve karotis kök basıncı ölçümü yaygın kullanılan yöntemlerdir. Serebral hipoperfuzyonu engellemek ve serebral iskemi riskini azaltmak amaçlı en yaygın kullanılan yöntem intraoperatif şant kullanılmasıdır. Çalışmamızda karotis kök basıncı eşik değeri ≤40mmhg şant kullanımına karar verilen hastalarda, NIRS rSO2 değerindeki azalma, şant kullanımının peroperatif inme ve mortalite üzerine etkilerini araştırmayı amaçladık. 2018-2020 yılları arasında Kuzey Amerika semptomatik karotis endarterektomi çalışması (NASCET) kriterlerine göre %70-99 oranında darlık saptanan ve opere edilen 40 hasta retrospektif olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Şant kullanılan ve kullanılmayan grupta ipsilateral NIRS değerleri sırası ile ortalama klemp öncesi 70.33±8.40 ve 65.1±4.52, klemp konulduktan sonraki ilk dakikada 57.87±8.4 ve 62.01±4.6 saptandı (p

Introduction: This study aims to identify the microorganism species isolated from blood cultures of patients hospitalized in the ICU of a tertiary center before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and to investigate their antibiotic susceptibility. Material and Methods: Patients hospitalized in the ICU two years before and after the COVID-19 pandemic between March 15, 2019, and March 15, 2021, were divided into two groups, and their blood cultures were evaluated retrospectively. Isolated microorganisms and their antibiotic susceptibility were analyzed. Results: A total of 1282 patients' blood cultures were analyzed, and demographic data were similar between groups. Blood culture growth was detected in 39.6% (n=202) of the patients in the pre-pandemic period and 41% (n=317) in the pandemic period. Gram-positive bacteria were isolated in 71.3%, gram-negative bacteria in 21.6%, and Candida spp. in 7.1% of the population. Klebsiella spp. was significantly higher, and Enterococcus spp. was significantly lower in blood cultures during the pandemic. In the COVID-19 period, although not significant, a decrease in antibiotic susceptibility was detected for Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella spp., E.coli, Enterobacter spp. and Pseudomonas spp. There was a statistically significant decrease in susceptibility to teicoplanin and linezolid in coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS). During the pandemic, 57.6% (n=172) of the patients were positive for COVID-19. In COVID-19-positive patients, while Candida spp. was significantly higher, no decrease in antifungal susceptibility was detected. Conclusion: During the pandemic, antibiotic susceptibility to gram-positive and gram-negative microorganisms decreased. Although there was a significant increase in Candida spp. rates in COVID-19-positive patients, there was no decrease in their antifungal susceptibility.

Introduction: Epicardial fat tissue (EFT) is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to investigate whether there is a relationship between the fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4 index) and EFT in newly-diagnosed hypertensive patients and explore the usability of the FIB-4 index in predicting non-dipper blood pressure (BP) pattern. Materials and methods: Our case–control study consisted of 210 patients in 3 groups according to BP values, namely normotensive, dipper, and non-dipper groups. Transthoracic echocardiography and 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring were performed in all patients. Results: The median FIB-4 index was higher in the non-dipper group [1.56 (1.10-2)] than in the dipper [1 (0.71-1.32)] and normotensive groups [0.96 (0.69-1.32)] (p < 0.001, for both). A positive correlation was observed between EFT and the FIB-4 index (r=0.389, p1.25 (area under the curve: 0.751, 95%CI: 0.679-0.823, p

Acute Stanford type-A aortic dissections (STAAD) are life-threatening diseases which require emergency surgery to eliminate risks of aortic rupture, severe aortic valve insufficiency, pericardial tamponade and cerebral and/or coronary malperfusion. Only a small subset of patients go unnoticed and become chronic with unclear mechanism. These patients are usually diagnosed thru late symptoms or incidentally. Surgical techniques requiring cardiopulmonary bypass and sometimes deep hypothermia and circulatory arrest are first-line treatments with considerable mortality and complications. Herein, an incidentally diagnosed chronic STAAD patient who was receiving antipsychotic and antidepressant treatment and successfully repaired with total aortic arch replacement was presented.

Background Atrial fibrillation (AF), a condition that might occur after a heart bypass procedure, has caused differing estimates of its occurrence and risk. The current study analyses the possible risk factors of post-coronary artery bypass grafting (post-CABG) AF (postoperative AF [POAF]) and presents a software for preoperative POAF risk prediction. Methods This retrospective research was performed on 1,667 patients who underwent CABG surgery using the hospital database. The associations between the variables of the patients and AF risk factors after CABG were examined using multivariable logistic regression (LR) after preprocessing the relevant data. The tool was designed to predict POAF risk using Shiny, an R package, to develop a web-based software. Results The overall proportion of post-CABG AF was 12.2%. According to the results of univariate tests, in terms of age (p Conclusion The experimental findings from the current research demonstrate that the suggested tool (POAFRiskScore v.1.0) can help clinicians predict POAF risk development in the preoperative period after validated on large sample(s) that can represent the related population(s). Simultaneously, since the updated versions of the proposed tool will be released periodically based on the increases in data dimensions with continuously added new samples and related factors, more robust predictions may be obtained in the subsequent stages of the current study in statistical and clinical terms.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration has been successfully applied in both diagnosis and staging of mediastinal and hilar lymphadenopathies and masses, especially in malignant cases. However, the optimal procedure of Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration to further increase diagnostic yield and minimize processing complexity remains controversial. This study aims to compare aspiration biopsy (Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration) and non-aspiration biopsy (Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle capillary sampling) in terms of sample adequacy, diagnosis, and quality in malignant cases. METHODS: Between March 2018 and June 2020, Endobronchial ultrasound-guided was performed sequentially on patients with mediastinal and/or hilar lymph nodes that were considered malignant. Each lymphadenopathy was sampled with and without aspiration. A single-blinded pathologist evaluated the samples. RESULTS: A total of 84 lymph nodes evaluations of 51 patients were included. Most samples were taken from the right lower paratracheal lymph nodes (n=27, 32.2%) and subcarinal LN (n=21, 25%). The mean size of the lymph nodes was 21.21±8.257 (8–40) mm. The agreement between the two procedures in terms of sample adequacy and diagnostic yield was 69.1% (95%CI 58–78.7, p=0.076). In addition, according to the goodness-of-fit statistics, the kappa values were 0.255 (p=0.015) and 0.302 (p=0.004) for sample adequacy and diagnostic yield, respectively. There was no difference between the two procedures in relation to complications. CONCLUSION: Although the agreement between the two procedures is weak, Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle capillary sampling can be performed with less personnel, without reducing diagnostic yield and tissue adequacy. These findings can assist clinicians in determining the optimal procedure for Endobronchial ultrasound-guided.

OBJECTIVE: In our study, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malatya province, other than confirmed case deaths, were investigated. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The records of those who died between 2016 and 2020 were reviewed on the official website of the Malatya Metropolitan Municipality, and the numbers of deaths in those 5 years were recorded on a weekly basis. The arithmetic mean of the deaths between 2016 and 2019 was calculated, and it was investigated whether the number of deaths in 2020 was more than expected. RESULTS: In 2020, 1743 (61%) excess deaths were detected. While the mean number of deaths reported 4 years before 2020 was 2860, it was determined that the number of deaths in 2020 was 4603, and there were 1743 (61%) excess deaths. CONCLUSION: The deaths occurred in Malatya during the COVID-19 pandemic were more than expected. It has been supposed that some deaths were of polymerase chain reaction negative and hence unrecorded COVID-19 patients’ deaths, and some deaths were caused by other indirect effects of the pandemic.

Objectives We aim to investigate the utility of middle cerebral artery peak systolic velocity (MCA PSV) Doppler in determining the perinatal mortality and morbidity in serial Doppler measurements from the time of diagnosis to the delivery of complicated cases with fetal growth restriction (FGR). Methods At 24–38 weeks of gestation, 65 pregnant women diagnosed with FGR were included in the study. The fetal biometry measurements, MCA pulsatility index (PI), and MCA PSV Doppler evaluation of the cases formed at the diagnosis and the delivery were recorded. Gestational weeks, birth weights, APGAR scores, cord pH values, NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) admission, NICU duration of stay, and perinatal morbidity parameters such as RDS (respiratory distress syndrome), BPD (bronchopulmonary dysplasia), NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis), sepsis and perinatal mortality were compared. The patients were divided into two groups: early and late-onset fetal growth restriction. Perinatal morbidity and mortality were accepted as adverse perinatal outcomes. Results MCA PSV above the 95th percentile at the diagnosis and delivery time was seen at a significantly higher rate with adverse perinatal outcomes. Conclusions This study shows that evaluating MCA PSV with Doppler can be a helpful diagnostic method for early diagnosis of restriction and hypoxic fetuses. Also, it may be used in clinics as a noninvasive method to predict neonatal prognosis.

Objective: The first imaging method to play an vital role in the diagnosis of COVID-19 illness is the chest X-ray. Because of the abundance of large-scale annotated picture datasets, convolutional neural networks (CNN) have shown remarkable success in image recognition and classification. The current study aims to construct a successful deep learning model that can distinguish COVID-19 from healthy controls using chest X-ray images. Material and Methods: The dataset in the study consists of subjects with 912 negative and 912 positive PCR results. A prediction model was built using VGG-16 with transfer learning to classify COVID-19 chest X-ray images. The data set was split at random into 80 % training and 20% testing groups. Results: The accuracy, F1 score, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative values from the model that can successfully distinguish COVID-19 from healthy controls are 97.3%, 97.3%, 97.8%, 96.7%, 96.7%, and 97.8% regarding the testing dataset, respectively. Conclusion: The suggested technique might greatly improve on current radiology-based methodologies and serve as a beneficial tool for clinicians/radiologists in diagnosing and following up on COVID-19 patients.

Aim: Data mining is the discovery process of beneficial information, not revealed from large-scale data beforehand. One of the fields in which data mining is widely used is health. With data mining, the diagnosis and treatment of the disease and the risk factors affecting the disease can be determined quickly. Association rules are one of the data mining techniques. The aim of this study is to determine patient profiles by obtaining strong association rules with the apriori algorithm, which is one of the association rule algorithms. Material and Method: The data set used in the study consists of 205 acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. The patients have also carried the genotype of the FNDC5 (rs3480, rs726344, rs16835198) polymorphisms. Support and confidence measures are used to evaluate the rules obtained in the Apriori algorithm. The rules obtained by these measures are correct but not strong. Therefore, interest measures are used, besides two basic measures, with the aim of obtaining stronger rules. In this study For reaching stronger rules, interest measures lift, conviction, certainty factor, cosine, phi and mutual information are applied. Results: In this study, 108 rules were obtained. The proposed interest measures were implemented to reach stronger rules and as a result 29 of the rules were qualified as strong. Conclusion: As a result, stronger rules have been obtained with the use of interest measures in the clinical decision making process. Thanks to the strong rules obtained, it will facilitate the patient profile determination and clinical decision-making process of AMI patients. Amaç: Veri madenciliği, önceden büyük ölçekli verilerden ortaya çıkarılmayan faydalı bilgilerin keşfedilme sürecidir. Veri madenciliğinin yaygın olarak kullanıldığı alanlardan biri de sağlıktır. Veri madenciliği ile hastalığın tanı ve tedavisi ile hastalığı etkileyen risk faktörleri hızlı bir şekilde belirlenebilmektedir. Birliktelik kuralları, veri madenciliği tekniklerinden biridir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, birliktelik kuralı algoritmalarından biri olan apriori algoritması ile güçlü birliktelik kuralları elde ederek hasta profillerini belirlemektir. Materyal ve Metot: Çalışmada kullanılan veri seti 205 akut miyokard enfarktüsü (AMI) hastasından oluşmaktadır. Hastalar ayrıca FNDC5 polimorfizmlerinin rs3480, rs726344, rs16835198 genotipini de taşımaktadır. Apriori algoritması ile elde edilen kuralları değerlendirmek için destek ve güven ölçüleri kullanılır. Ancak bu ölçütler ile elde edilen kurallar doğrudur ancak güçlü değildir. Bu nedenle, daha güçlü kurallar elde etmek amacıyla iki temel ölçütün yanı sıra ilginçlik ölçütleri kullanılmaktadır. Bu çalışmada daha güçlü kurallara ulaşmak için ilginçlik ölçütlerinden kaldıraç, kanaat, kesinlik faktörü, cosine, korelasyon katsayısı (phi) ve karşılıklı bilgi ölçütleri uygulanmıştır. Bulgular: Çalışmada 108 kural elde edilmiştir. Bu kurallara ilginçlik ölçütlerinin de uygulanması ile elde edilen kural sayısı 29 olmuştur ve bu kurallar güçlü kural olarak nitelendirilmiştir. Sonuç: Sonuç olarak, klinik karar verme sürecinde ilginçlik ölçütlerinin kullanılmasıyla daha güçlü kurallar elde edilmiştir. Elde edilen güçlü kurallar sayesinde AMİ hastalarının hasta profili belirleme ve klinik karar verme sürecini kolaylaştıracaktır.

The present study evaluated the use of endocan, interleukin-17 (IL-17), and thrombospondin-4 (TSP-4) blood levels as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and follow-up of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Patients with PAD (Rutherford categories I, II, and III) who were admitted between March 2020 and March 2022 for cardiovascular surgery or outpatient clinic follow-up were included. The patients ( n = 60) were divided into 2 groups: medical treatment ( n = 30) and surgical treatment ( n = 30). In addition, a control group ( n = 30) was created for comparison. Endocan, IL-17, and TSP-4 blood levels were measured at the time of diagnosis and at the first month after treatment. Endocan and IL-17 values were found to be significantly higher in both groups that underwent medical (259.7 ± 46 pg/mL, 63.7 ± 16.6 pg/mL) and surgical (290.3 ± 84.5 pg/mL, 66.4 ± 19.6 pg/mL) treatment than the control group (187.4 ± 34.5 pg/mL, 56.5 ± 7.2 pg/mL P < .001). Tsp-4 value was found to be significantly higher only in the surgical treatment group (15 ± 4.3 ng/mL) than the control group (12.9 ± 1.4 ng/mL P < .05). The decreases in endocan, IL-17, and TSP-4 levels at the first month of treatment in both groups were also significant ( P < .001). A combination of classical and these new biomarkers could be included in PAD screening, early diagnosis, severity determination, and follow-up protocols in order to provide effective assessment in clinical practice.

Background and Aims. Sepsis causes release of free oxygen radicals that destroy membrane integrity.We evaluated the antioxidant effects of parsley, Petroselinum crispum(Pc), which has been used therapeutically for centuries in Anatolia, using a rat model of sepsis caused by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP).Methods.Wistar albino rats were separated into four groups of eight: a sham group with incised and sutured abdomen, a Pc extract(PcE) group was given 2 g/kg parsley extract for 14 days by gastric gavage, a CLP group with sepsis caused by CLP and a PcE + CLP group given parsley extract for 14 days, then made septic by CLP. PcE is given for 14 days and then sepsis is performed by the CLP procedure. Results. The groups were compared in terms of hemogram, biochemical and histological characteristics. It has been proven that the administration of PcE before CLP-induced sepsis increases neutrophil, PLT counts and TAS levels which decrease with sepsis and decreases biochemical changes (BUN, AST, ALT, LDH, TOS, OSI) which increase with sepsis, to have a protective effect on sepsis . In the PcE + CLP group, the severity of intestinal infiltration was decreased significantly compared to the CLP group; epithelial damage was similar to the CLP group. In the PcE + CLP group, the crypt and villus length was greater and the decrease in Paneth cell degranulation intensity was found to be more than for the CLP group ; also, the morphology of the cells was similar to the Sham group. Discussion. PcE exhibit potential for prophylaxis for sepsis.

In recent years, wireless smart devices which use radio frequencies are emerging increasingly in all areas of our life. This article presents the influences of radio frequency (RF) output power level on RF electromagnetic field and RF common mode immunity tests of wireless radio equipment.According to the ETSI EN 301 489-17, the RF output power level should be adjusted to the maximum level during the tests. However, the use of RF output power level in daily life may not work at the maximum or fixed level in a wireless device. In order to observe the effects on test results, RF common mode and RF electromagnetic field immunity tests are performed at the maximum RF output power level as stated in the standard and at different RF output power levels as independent from the standard. The results of the measurements are compared with each other at the certain frequencies.

Ischemia/reperfusion injury occurs after testicular torsion, levels of free oxygen radicals and inflammatory cytokines are increased in both the torsional and contralateral testis, leading to testicular injury.The present study investigated whether orchiopexy or orchiectomy after testicular torsion was superior in terms of fertility potential in the long term.Following 720°, 4 h left testicular torsion, orchiectomy or orchiopexy was performed on 84 rats, which were then sacrificed and evaluated for testicular function at day 1, at 3 months and 6 months (n = 14 per group). An additional 14 rats were in the control group.Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and testosterone levels were significantly lower in the orchiopexy group than the orchiectomy and control groups after 3 months. However, there were no significant differences in hormone parameters among the three groups after 6 months. The hormone levels, Johnsen score, seminiferous tubule diameter, and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression at 3 and 6 months were not significantly different between the orchiectomy group and controls. Histopathological analyses at 3 and 6 months indicated significant decreases in Johnsen score and seminiferous tubule diameter in the ipsilateral testis in the orchiopexy group. At 3 months, the level of iNOS expression in the contralateral testis was significantly lower in the orchiopexy group than in other groups. At 6 months, however, it was not significantly different between the orchiopexy and control groups. There were no significant differences in iNOS expression at 3 or 6 months in the orchiectomy group compared to controls.The ipsilateral testis in the orchiopexy group began to atrophy at 3 months, and the degree of atrophy became more evident at 6 months. The level of iNOS expression was low in the bilateral testis at 3 months in the orchiopexy group, and sperm in the contralateral testis were not yet functionally healthy. The level of iNOS expression in the ipsilateral testis decreased further at 6 months in the orchiopexy group, while that in the contralateral testis returned to the normal level.Testicular functions were restored faster after orchiectomy compared to orchiopexy following testicular torsion. However, follow-up of the rats for 6 months demonstrated that orchiopexy or orchiectomy procedures conducted on the testicular torsion had no effect on future fertility potential after 4 h of torsion.

WOS: 000492824600029 PubMed ID: 32082932 Coexistence of infrarenal aortic occlusion, known as Leriche syndrome, and horseshoe kidney is extremely rare. The isthmus of the latter, which usually contains functional renal parenchyma, complicates surgery. A 52-year-old male patient with Leriche syndrome and concomitant horseshoe kidney disease underwent a successful surgical repair. A median incision and transperitoneal approach were used to explore the infrarenal aorta, aortoiliac bifurcation, iliac arteries, and horseshoe kidney. The isthmus was connecting the lower poles over the aortoiliac bifurcation. Aortoplasty with aortobifemoral bypass was performed, preserving the horseshoe kidney and its accessory arteries. Operative and postoperative periods were uneventful. At eight months of follow-up, the patient was asymptomatic in daily activities.

Appendicitis is one of the most common surgical emergencies among children. In this retrospective clinical study, we attempted to determine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic period on hospital admission time and length of hospital stay (LOS) in pediatric appendicitis cases.We retrospectively compared pediatric appendectomies from the date of the first reported COVID-19 case to June 1, 2020, which is considered as the start of the normalization process, with pre-pandemic pediatric appendectomies of the same number of days in terms of age, gender, hospital admission time, LOS, parental educational level, laboratory values, and histopathological findings.There was an average increase of 2 days in the time from the onset of symptoms to hospital admission in pediatric appen-dicitis patients in the COVID-19 period (p=0.001). Furthermore, C-reactive protein value was statistically significantly higher in the COVID-19 period (p=0.018). Given the LOS, it was calculated as an average of 5 days in the pre-pandemic period and 4 days in the COVID-19 period, and this difference was statistically insignificant (p=0.273). There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of histopathological findings (p=0.176). The parental educational level had no effect on the admission time.The hospital admission time of pediatric appendicitis patients is significantly prolonged in the COVID-19 pandemic, but this prolongation had no histopathological effect. During the pandemic, the recovery of patients who required urgent treatment during the 'stay-at-home' period was also negatively affected. Notwithstanding, we are of the opinion that the absence of an increase in the LOS may be due to the willingness of both families and physicians to keep the LOS as short as possible. Despite the increase in hospital admission time in pediatric appendicitis during the Covid 19 pandemic process, the lack of increase in the rate of complicated appendicitis may be an indicator of the importance of other factors in the development of complicated appendicitis.

Purpose: COVID-19 pandemic has created a serious psychological impact worldwide since it has been declared. This study aims to investigate the level of psychological impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on Turkish population and to determine related factors. Methods: The study was carried out by using an online questionnaire using the virtual snowball sampling method. The sociodemographic data were collected on the following subjects: Participants’ experience on any signs of infection within the last month, the history of COVID-19 contact-treatment-quarantine, level of compliance with precautionary measures, the sources of information and level of knowledge about the pandemic process and their belief levels on the knowledge they acquire. Besides, questions that take place in the depression, anxiety, stress scale (DASS-21), and impact of events scale (IESR) were asked. Results: Of the 3549 participants, anxiety was found in 15.8%, depression in 22.6%, stress in 12.9%, and psychological trauma in 20.29%. Female gender, young age, higher education level, being single, high monthly income, presence of psychiatric illness, a high number of people living together, having any signs of infection, and contact history with COVID-19 infected person or contaminated object are identified as risk factors that may increase psychological impact. Compliance with the rules was found to reduce the risk of psychological response. Conclusions: During the pandemic, reducing the spread of the virus and knowing the risk factors in protecting the mental health of individuals will be guided in determining the measures to be followed and the policies to be followed.

Wireless communication systems are among the most used and rapidly developing technologies of today. With the advances in wireless systems and hardware materials, different physical data in an environment can be obtained by designing low cost, low energy consumption and easy to install wireless networks. Positioning systems used to detect the locations of objects use wireless technologies. Today, the use of positioning systems is increasing and becoming widespread. Firstly, GPS satellite systems that are used to determine the location in open areas were developed. This system is widely used in military and civilian applications worldwide. In open field positioning, satellite signals are generally used and position determination is performed over the arrival time of the signals. However, when it comes to closed areas, a different approach and solution should be developed. In our study, three separate equipment using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals were developed to determine the location in closed areas. Experiments using machine learning methods show that the equipment developed to determine the location in the indoor area can detect locations with an error in the range of 1-1.5m., Kablosuz haberleşme sistemleri günümüzün en çok kullanılan ve hızla gelişen teknolojileri arasında bulunmaktadır. Kablosuz sistemlerdeki ve donanımsal malzemelerdeki gelişmeler ile düşük maliyetli, düşük enerji tüketimli ve kurulumları kolay kablosuz ağlar tasarlanarak bir ortamdaki farklı fiziksel veriler elde edilebilmektedir. Nesnelerin bulundukları yerleri tespit etmek amacıyla kullanılan konumlandırma sistemleri, kablosuz teknolojileri kullanmaktadır. Günümüzde konumlandırma sistemlerinin kullanımı giderek artmakta ve yaygınlaşmaktadır. İlk olarak açık alanlarda konum belirlemek için kullanılan GPS uydu sistemleri geliştirilmiştir. Bu sistem dünya genelinde askeri ve sivil uygulamalarda yaygın olarak kullanılmaktadır. Açık alan konumlandırma da genellikle uydu sinyallerinden faydalanılır ve sinyallerin geliş süresi üzerinden konum tespiti gerçekleştirilir. Ancak kapalı alanlar söz konusu olduğunda farklı bir yaklaşım ve çözüm geliştirilmesi gerekmektedir. Çalışmamızda kapalı alanlarda konum belirlemek amacıyla Wi-Fi ve Bluetooth sinyallerinden yararlanan üç ayrı donanım geliştirilmiştir. Makine öğrenmesi yöntemleri kullanarak yapılan denemeler, kapalı alanda konum belirlemek için geliştirilen donanımların 1-1,5m aralığında bir hata ile konum tespiti yapabildiğini göstermektedir.

Object recognition is a computer vision technique for identifying objects in images or videos. Object recognition is an important output of deep learning and machine learning algorithms. For this purpose, open source, free and artificial intelligence based "Object Recognition Software" has been developed in order to perform object recognition operation easily.In creating this web-based software, Darkflow and Tensorflow libraries are used which are based on deep learning based Python programming language and allow the design of interactive web based applications. While performing object recognition analysis in the developed software, CNN (Convolutional Neural Networks) multiple convolution layers are uncovered hidden and useful features obtained by various calculation methods. With CNN, objects are classified, objects are detected, and objects are determned by image segmentation. A pre-trained model from COCO, a large-scale object detection, partitioning and image dataset, is used to see how the web-based software work and to evaluate the analysis outputs. Object recognition analysis is applied to ten images from this data set. According to the object recognition analysis results of the ten images, the calculated accuracy rates is examined and it is found that this web based software which is developed as open source and free access gives successful estimations in object recognition.In order to see how the web-based software works and to evaluate the analysis outputs, a pre-trained model was used from COCO (Common Objects in Context) which is a large scale object detection, partitioning and image dataset. Object recognition analysis was applied to ten images from this data set. When the accuracy ratio of the ten images calculated according to the object recognition analysis result is examined, it is determined that this web based software which is developed as open source and free access gives successful predictions in object recognition.The developed software is new user-friendly web-based software that can easily identify objects in images and discriminatory from each other objects. In the following studies, in order to increase the diagnostic accuracy of the objects in the images, it is suggested that the softwares that uses deeper neural networks should be developed and the necessary infrastructure to detect the defects in the medical images can be developed.