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Occupational exposure of healthcare workers to blood and body fluids following skin injury constitutes a risk for transmission of blood-borne pathogens. The risk of exposure is greater as well. The present study aimed to determine the burden and risk factors of sharp object injuries in two tertiary hospitals in the Taif City KSA. Retrospective review of needle stick injury records was included from the two hospital's staff clinics. A Total of 131 health professionals (employees) recorded as exposed to sharp object injuries from both hospitals were enrolled during period 2016–2018. The collected data was cleaned, reviewed and analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences SPSS ver. 25. The result of the study revealed that, the mean age for the 131 enrolled participants was 31 ± 6.6, Male to Female Ratio was 1:3. The most affected age group was 20–30 years (55.7%). Females were more affected 98 out of 131 (74.8%) than male (33out of 131 (25.2%). And there is increasing incidence rates of exposure from 2.89 /10.000 patient/day in 2016 to 3.42/ 10.000 patients'/day in 2017, with highest exposed nationalities; Filipino 42 (32.1%), Saudi 31 (23.7%), and Indians 26 (19.8%), the remaining 24.5% were from 10 mixed nationalities. The frequent affected divisions were: ER, surgical ward, operation room, ICU, laboratory, Medical W, Medical waste facilities (19.8%, 15%, 12.2%, 9.2%, 92% respectively). The most affected HCWs categories were nurses 74(56.5%), doctor 23(17.6%) and housekeeping 18 (13.7%). And the needle prick 104(79.4%) and cut wound 15(11.5%) constitute the highest type of injuries and were during operation 23 (17.6%), waste collection 15 (11.5%), cannulation 12 (9.2%) and giving injection 12 (9.2%). The common devices caused injuries were bore hole needle 63(48.1%), suture needle **(13.7%), cannula and insulin syringe 13 (9.9%) each. This study concluded that, as from 2016−2018, there was an increasing rate of reported accidental exposure to sharp needle injuries amongst HCWs from 3.0 to 3.4/10.000 patient/day, and the younger and nurses were mostly impacted. Workplace, distress, work types and load had influences on injuries rates and types. Fortunately, no exposure among employee with HBV, HCV and HIV seroconversion were documented.

Bu çalışmada çekirdekli ve çekirdeksiz nar taneleri (Punica granatum L.) ince tabaka halinde farklı sürelerde ultrason ön işlemi (US) uygulandıktan sonra 70 °C’de 1,3 m/s hava hızında kurutulmuştur. Nar tanelerinin kuruma kinetiğinin incelenmesi amacıyla literatürde çok kullanılan ancak karmaşık ve verilerin dönüştürülmesini gerektiren çok parametreli modeller yerine en çok iki parametreli modeller kullanılmıştır. Bu modeller Lewis (Newton), Page, Modifiye Page I, Weibull, Weibull I ve Modifiye Çift Terimli III modelleridir. Kurutma işlemlerini en iyi açıklayan modelin seçilmesi amacıyla hata kareleri ortalamasının kare kökü (RMSE) ve belirleme katsayısı (R2) değerleri incelenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlara göre çekirdekli nar tanelerinin kurutulmasını tüm işlem koşullarında en iyi Page modelinin açıkladığı belirlenmiştir. Çekirdeksiz nar tanelerinde ön işlemsiz ve 10 dakika US ön işlemli nar tanelerinin kurutulmasını en iyi açıklayan modelin Page modeli, 20 ve 30 dakika US ön işlemli nar tanelerinin kurutulmasını en iyi açıklayan modelin ise Weibull modeli olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bununla birlikte, kurutma öncesinde uygulanan farklı sürelerdeki US ön işlemlerinin çekirdekli ve çekirdeksiz nar tanelerinin kuruma sürelerini önemli ölçüde azalttığı belirlenmiştir.

This work examined the beta irradiation and characterization of lead oxide nanoparticles samples that were prepared via pulsed laser deposition. The lead oxide nanoparticles samples were irradiated by beta-ray. Strontium 90 radioisotope was used as beta irradiation for different time periods (Days 1, 3, 4, and 5). The morphologies of lead oxide nanoparticles films were characterized with and without beta irradiation through the use of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). According to the findings, beta radiation impacted lead oxide nanoparticles samples' morphological properties. The details of experimental setups, sample preparation procedures, and data analysis, are explicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bu çalışmada, son yıllarda geliştirilen öğrenme-öğretme tabanlı optimizasyon algoritması (ÖÖTO) yeniden düzenlenerek, güç sistemlerinde gerilim kararlılığı için yeni bir optimizasyon yöntemi geliştirilmiştir. Düzenlenen öğrenme-öğretme tabanlı optimizasyon (D-ÖÖTO) algoritması, IEEE 14 baralı ve Türkiye, İstanbul Anadolu yakasında 17 baralı gerçek bir güç sistemi kullanılarak gerilim kararlılığı optimizasyonu olarak sunulmuştur. Bu güç sistemlerinde, beş farklı durum (temel durum, temel durumda ki talep edilen yükün %20, %40 ve %60 artışı ve 1-5 nolu hat kesintisi) oluşturulmuş ve analizler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Daha sonra yük baralarına şönt reaktif güç kompansatörleri (RGK) bağlanarak gerilim kararlılığı açısından etkisi incelenmiştir. Sunulan D-ÖÖTO algoritmasının etkinliğini kanıtlamak için orijinal ÖÖTO ve literatürde kullanılan Yerçekimi arama algoritması (YAA), parçacık sürü optimizasyonu (PSO) ve Newton-Raphson güç akış yönetimi sonuçlarıyla karşılaştırılmıştır. Tüm çalışma koşullarında sunulan D-ÖÖTO algoritması diğer yöntemlere göre üstünlüğü kanıtlanmıştır. Tüm analizler, Intel Core(TM) i7-2620 2.7GHz ve 8.00 (64 bit) Gb Ram PC kullanılarak, Matlab R2017b programında çözümlenmiştir.

It is aimed to reveal the basement topography, the coal-bearing levels, the alteration zones containing uranium ore, and the tectonic structure prevailing by using two dimensional (2D) seismic reflection method in the Thrace Paleogene-Neogene Basin. In this context, seismic data collected on the six profiles were interpreted by correlating with the data of 97 wells. In the seismic lines, respectively, the metamorphic basement-Eocene boundary, the top of the coal-bearing zone and the boundary of the Danişmen-Ergene formations were confirmed by using the borehole data. By evaluating seismic data, the coal propagation is modeled with three dimensional (3D) figures. Moreover, coal accumulation starts from the southwest of the field and continues towards the northeast, and it is supported by the results obtained from the borehole data. The presence of uranium ore in some of the alteration zones and borehole data indicated that all alteration zones determined should be inspected for uranium ore. In addition to normal and reverse faults, positive and negative flower structures formed in the strike-slip fault zones were determined, and lignite deposits were cut in the flank of these structures. Finally, it is recommended to carry out seismic studies before drilling, to investigate potential coal and uranium areas and to plan more seismic lines.

The presence of the evaporate salt zone in Ankara-Polatlı region has been determined by the drillings. It is thought to be the largest reserve in Türkiye. The seismic reflection method was used to determine the top-bottom levels of the region; its depth; its thickness and extent boundaries; the horst-graben structures; base depth and tectonic movements affecting the study area. Data were collected on three seismic lines. The near-surface tomographic velocity sections were compatible with the top-of-the-zone depth observed in the drillings. As a result of the study, the depth and thickness of the top-bottom of the zone were determined along the lines. Within the scope of the study, a combined interpretation was made on the lines by using gravity and seismic data. The extent of the ore zone was determined only in the E-W direction section, but not in the north-south direction lines since they are outside the license area and the seismic lines. The closest point of the evaporate zone to the surface is approximately 150 m, the deepest point is approximately 310 m, the average thickness is approximately 100 m and the maximum thickness is 185 m.

Verification and validation (V&V) are complex processes combining different approaches and incorporating many different methods including many activities. System engineers regularly face the question if their V&V activities lead to better products, and having appropriate criteria at hand for evaluation of safety and cybersecurity of the systems would help to answer such a question. Additionally, when there is a demand to improve the quality of an already managed V&V process, there is a struggle over what criteria to use in order to measure the improvement. This paper presents an extensive set of criteria suitable for safety and cybersecurity evaluation of cyberphysical systems. The evaluation criteria are agreed upon by 60 researchers from 32 academic and industrial organizations jointly working in a large-scale European research project on 13 real-world use cases from the domains of automotive, railway, aerospace, agriculture, healthcare, and industrial robotics.

Introduction: Given the lack of research on the relationship of post-surgery dumping syndrome and eating disturbances, the purpose of the present longitudinal study was to investigate whether dumping after obesity surgery is associated with pre-/postoperative eating disorder symptoms or addiction-like eating beyond the type of surgery, gender, HRQoL and anxiety/depressive symptoms. Methods: The study included 220 patients (76% women) before (t0) and six months after (t1) obesity surgery (sleeve gastrectomy n=152, Roux-en-Y gastric bypass n=53, Omega Loop gastric bypass n=15). The Sigstad Dumping Score was used to assess post-surgery dumping syndrome. Participants further answered the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0), Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at t0 and t1. Results: The point prevalence of symptoms suggestive of post-surgery dumping syndrome was 33%. Regression analyses indicate an association of dumping with surgical procedure (bypass), female gender, reduced HRQoL, anxiety/depressive symptoms and potentially with binge eating, but not with eating disorder symptoms in general or with addiction-like eating. Conclusion: The current study failed to show a close relationship between the presence of self-reported dumping syndrome and eating disorder symptoms or addiction-like eating following obesity surgery. Further studies with longer follow-up periods should make use of clinical interviews to assess psychosocial variables and of objective measures to diagnose dumping in addition to standardized self-ratings.

Tarih boyunca futbol oynandığı her dönemde toplumları etkileyen önemli bir rekabet ve görsel şölen olmuştur. Başlangıçta askeri talim ve üst düzey sınıfı eğlendirmek amacıyla ortaya çıkan futbol, zamanla kurumsallaşma açısından önemli bir ilerleme kaydederek çağımızın popüler spor oyunlarından birisi haline gelmiştir. 19. yüzyılından itibaren küreselleşme ve kitle iletişim araçlarındaki gelişmeyle beraber daha geniş bir halk kitlesine ulaşmaya başaran futbol artık günümüz dünyasında ülkelerin rekabet alanlarından birisi haline gelmiştir. Bu sportif faaliyetlerden birisi olan futbol, insani bir girişim olması hasebiyle içinde birçok kültürel öğeyi bünyesinde barındırmaktadır. Futbol bu özelliği sebebiyle basit bir oyundan öte pek çok sosyal, ekonomik ve kültürel olguyla ilişkilendirilen ve anlamlandırılan bir oyun hâline gelmiştir. Bugün ülkelerin futbol ile olan ilişkileri incelendiği zaman kendi milli takımlarının başarısında büyük pay sahibi olan futbolcuların, üstün futbol yeteneği sayesinde adeta mitleştirilerek içinde yaşadıkları toplumun gözünde sıradan insanlardan farklı konumda değerlendirildiği görülmektedir. Amacı kutsalın futboldaki tezahürlerinin tespit edilmesi olan bu çalışmada, dokümantasyon metodu kullanılmıştır. Bu çerçevede tespit edilen kavram ve semboller etnometodolojik analize tabi tutularak yorumlanmıştır. Bu çalışmada tespit edilen en önemli husus post-modern çağda bireylerin veya grupların kutsalla olan ilişkisini geleneksel dini kurumlar olmadan da bir şekilde devam ettirmeleridir.

Abstract Background Apart from the absence of nociception, there is no readily available prognostic test for dogs presenting with paraplegia secondary to acute intervertebral disc extrusion (IVDE). Objective To assess if serum C‐reactive protein (CRP) can predict the postoperative outcome in paraplegic dogs undergoing surgery for IVDE and to assess the association between serum CRP and presence/absence of nociception on admission, and serum CRP and presence/absence of intramedullary changes seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Animals One hundred dogs that underwent surgery at our hospital between 2018 and 2020 because of acute paraplegia secondary to IVDE and in which serum CRP was measured. Methods Retrospective observational cohort study. Dogs were classified as 4 or 5 according to the modified Frankel score (MFS) depending on presence/absence of nociception, respectively. MRI images were reviewed and the T2‐weighted hyperintensity: L2 vertebral body length was measured. Postoperative outcome was defined as positive if nociception, ambulation or both returned after decompressive surgery. Results The median (95% CI) serum CRP was 4 (4‐5) and 6 (4‐7) mg/L in MSF4 and MSF5, respectively (P = .03). A weak linear relationship (R2 = 0.049, P = .03) was found between CRP and the T2‐weighted hyperintensity: L2 vertebral length. Outcome data was available for 85 dogs: CRP was 4 (4‐5) and 5 (4‐10) mg/L in positive and negative outcome dogs, respectively (P = .32). Conclusion and Clinical Importance Serum CRP did not predict outcome after surgery in dogs with paraplegia secondary to IVDE.

This paper introduces the dual-entropy method for oscillator-based digital random number generators (RNG). The standard model for elaborating jitter-based RNG is expanded to account for the sampling time uncertainty. It is explained that combining the jitter of the sampling clock with the uncertainty of the sampled signal proves to be the most efficient method for harvesting entropy from jitter. Dual-entropy configuration also improves the robustness of the RNG against correlation, interference, and injection-based attacks in hardware. Numerical analysis and experimental results show that the negative effect of external interference on the entropy of the output bitstream is significantly reduced in dual-entropy-based RNG. The proposed method is demonstrated on a ring-oscillator-based design and implemented on FPGA. It is tested using NIST 800-22, Dieharder, and TestU01 batteries and observed to produce successful random bitstreams at a maximum center frequency of 45 MHz on Zedboard Zynq and 114 MHz on ZCU102 Zynq Ultrascale+ evaluation kits without post-processing.

Robotic systems are widely used in industry, agriculture, the inspection of infrastructure, and even in our daily lives. The safety and security of robotic systems have become a primary concern as their interaction with humans increases. In this context, attacks on robotic systems have increased for diversified field applications. It is necessary to accurately detect these abnormal events in these systems as soon as possible. However, these systems also need a runtime verification approach on whether they conform to the established specifications. In this study, runtime verification for anomaly detection methods is proposed for the security of the robot operating system (ROS). Firstly, an anomaly detection method is proposed to detect unexpected situations, such as the number of the received packages being decreased under DoS attacks. Then, a holistic runtime verification architecture is proposed for the anomaly detection method. This architecture consists of three major entities: a verification device, an attacker device, and a robotic platform without losing generality. In the verification device, ROSMonitoring and Oracle are used to implement runtime verification. The proposed architecture is verified through an experimental setup. It is shown that the architecture can be used for runtime verification of different anomaly detection algorithms. A discussion on the security of robotic systems is also presented.

Objective: To investigate the effects of genetic polymorphisms of human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits α3, α4 and α5, which are encoded by CHRNA3, CHRNA4 CHRNA5 genes, respectively, on nicotine addiction and outcomes of pharmacological treatments for smoking cessation.Methods: A total of 143 smokers and 130 non-smokers were included. Genotyping for CHRNA3 rs578776, CHRNA4 rs1044396-rs1044397, CNRNA5 rs16969968 polymorphisms was performed by PCR, flowed by RFLP. Clinical outcomes and success rates of pharmacological treatments for smoking cessation with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion or varenicline were determined at the 12th week of the treatment.Results: Overall, 52 out of 143 (36.4%) smokers who received pharmacotherapy were able to quit smoking. Success rates for smoking cessation were similar for female (30.3%) and male (41.6%) subjects (p = 0.16). The success rate for smoking cessation treatment with varenicline (58.5%) was significantly higher as compared to other treatments with NRT (20.0%), bupropion (32.3%) or bupropion + NRT (40.0%) (chi-square test, p = 0.001). Smoker vs. non-smoker status and the clinical outcomes of drugs used for smoking cessation were found similar in subjects carrying wild-type and variant alleles of human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor α subunits.Conclusion: In this study, smoking cessation treatment with varenicline was significantly more effective than treatments with nicotine replacement or bupropion in a cohort of Turkish subjects. Smoker/non-smoker status and the clinical outcomes of treatment with pharmacological agents were similar in subjects with wild-type or variant alleles for human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunits α3 (CHRNA3), α4 (CHRNA4) and α5 (CHRNA5).

Verification and validation (V&V) of systems, and system of systems, in an industrial context has never been as important as today. The recent developments in automated cyber-physical systems, digital twin environments, and Industry 4.0 applications require effective and comprehensive V&V mechanisms. Verification and Validation of Automated Systems' Safety and Security (VALU3S), a Horizon 2020 Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership Joint Undertaking (ECSEL-JU) project started in May 2020, aims to create and evaluate a multi-domain V&V framework that facilitates evaluation of automated systems from component level to system level, with the aim of reducing the time and effort needed to evaluate these systems. VALU3S focuses on V&V for the requirements of safety, cybersecurity, and privacy (SCP). This paper mainly focuses on the elaboration of one of the 13 use cases of VALU3S to identify the SCP issues in an automated robot inspection cell that is being actively used for the quality control assessment of automotive body-in-white. The joint study here embarks on a collaborative approach that puts the V&V methods and workflows for the robotic arms safety trajectory planning and execution, fault injection techniques, cyber-physical security vulnerability assessment, anomaly detection, and SCP countermeasures required for remote control and inspection. The paper also presents cross-links with ECSEL-JU goals and the current advancements in the market and scientific and technological state-of-play.

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