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OBJECTIVE: Although inflammation has an important role in the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation (AF), the effect of novel oral anticoagulants (NOAC) used to reduce the risk of ischemic stroke and embolism on inflammation remains unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of NOAC, which have been shown to have anticoagulant properties, on inflammation and platelet reactivation, which have an important role in the pathogenesis of AF. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 530 patients, including 380 patients with nonvalvular AF using NOAC and 150 patients with nonvalvular AF who did not use any NOAC were included in the study. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was calculated as the ratio of absolute neutrophil count to absolute lymphocyte count. Mean platelet volume (MPV), red cell distribution width (RDW), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) values of both groups were assessed both on admission and at three-month follow-up. RESULTS: When the complete blood count (CBC) changes of the groups included in the study were compared, the RDW, MPV, and NLR values showed a greater decrease in the NOAC group compared to the non-NOAC group (p=0.000 for all). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that the NOAC used in anticoagulation treatment do not only act as anticoagulants but also reduce inflammation and platelet reactivation, which have an important role in the pathogenesis of AF and thromboembolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, three-stage research was carried out to investigate the adverse effects of openings in flat slabs. In the first stage of the study, full-scaled reinforced concrete two-way slabs were produced and exposed to a punching load. One of the test specimens was the reference test element produced without openings. For the other test specimens, the number of openings, the location of the opening, and the size of the opening were chosen as variables. The punching strength, initial stiffness, and energy dissipation capacity of the slabs were calculated with the load-displacement data recorded during the experiment. In the second stage of the study, the punching capacities of the test specimens were calculated by means of the punching capacity estimation equations presented in international regulations and compared with the experimental data. In the last stage of the study, the superposition principle, which is among the general principles of mechanics and has not been used before in the literature, was utilized. Considering the opening conditions presented in this study and the literature, it was investigated whether the new opening condition that will arise can be predicted with experimental data via the superposition principle.

OBJECTIVE: Atherosclerosis plays a major role in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD). It has been shown that mitochondrial open-reading-frame of the twelve S rRNA-c (MOTS-c), a mitochondrial-derived peptide, has preventive effects on atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between MOTS-c levels and CAD presence and severity using SYNTAX score (SS) in patients with stable angina pectoris. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ninety-two consecutive patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD+) and ninety-two consecutive patients with normal coronary artery (CAD-) were included. Presence and severity of coronary artery disease were determined using the SS. RESULTS: We observed that the MOTS-c levels was lower in the CAD group (111±13 vs. 161±23, p<0.001). The MOTS-c levels were also found to be significant independent predictors for CAD in multiple regression analysis (p<0.001). A MOTS-c levels =130.9 had 80.3% sensitivity and 73.2% specificity (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.858, 95% CI: 0.895-0.999, p<0.001) for predicting CAD. CONCLUSIONS: The authors revealed that there is a strong correlation between MOTS-c levels and CAD. Therefore, MOTS-c may help identify patients with CAD, thus allowing for early preventive treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the causal impacts of a tick size reduction policy in highly liquid stocks, exploiting a unique experiment in Borsa Istanbul leading to substantial exogenous variation in the tick size. Adapting a differences-in-differences strategy with a novel limit order and trade book data with intraday calculations, we find evidence that the tick size reduction improves market quality for the liquid stocks by significantly lowering quoted, effective, and realized spread yet reducing the depth at the best bid offer and aggregate depth. Moreover, results indicate a lower price impact for the treated stocks while there is no significant impact on trading volume, however, the number of trades increases but trade and order sizes get smaller significantly. Estimates show null effects on the submission of market orders, volatility, and returns. Our study departs from the existing literature with no dark pool trading and internalization of orders in the Turkish Stock Markets.

This study investigates the causal effects of Syrian migrants on the financial behavior of natives in Türkiye. Utilizing a comprehensive administrative data set, we employ a two-stage least square (2SLS) estimation technique that isolates causal effects by exploiting substantial exogenous variation in the share of migrants relative to natives, arising from the geographical proximity to Syrian governorates of a specific province. Results indicate that immigrants have no significant overall effects on the financial decisions of natives. We find no conclusive evidence that migrant influx promotes overall stock market participation at both extensive and intensive margins. Moreover, our investigation reveals a minimal variation in direct stock ownership or the wealth invested in stocks. We observe neither economically nor statistically significant effects on the share of natives holding bonds or funds. Additionally, no discernible impact of migrants on the wealth per capita invested in bonds, funds, and the overall stock market emerges. However, we find limited evidence suggesting that migrants contribute to an increase in the share of wealth invested in stocks, albeit with a corresponding decrease in the share of wealth allocated to funds. Lastly, we explore the heterogeneity in the effects of immigrants by gender, but our findings reveal no significant variation by gender.

In the present paper, we investigate connections between various subclasses of harmonic univalent functions by using a convolution operator involving the Pascal distribution series. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aim:Chronic obesity causes adipose tissue to produce mediators that promote atherogenesis and vascular inflammation, contributing to hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study aimed to examine the relationship between body mass index (BMI) with homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] levels in females.Materials and Methods:One hundred thirty-one females participated in the study: 46 morbidly obese, 38 obese, 25 overweight, and 22 normal BMI. To determine insulin resistance, all participants had their HOMA-IR values assessed. As an inflammatory marker, hs-CRP and as a lipid biomarker, Lp(a) were checked.Results:A significant difference in the HOMA-IR was found between the normal and the obese (P = 0.001) and morbidly obese (P = 0.0001) participants. There was also a significant difference in terms of HOMA-IR between the overweight and morbidly obese (P = 0.001) groups. In paired-group comparisons, hs-CRP was found to be significantly different between the normal group and obese (P = 0.001) and morbidly obese (P = 0.0001). Additionally, a significant difference in terms of hs-CRP between the overweight and morbidly obese participants (P = 0.003) was found. When Lp(a) values were compared, there was a significant difference between the normal group and those who were overweight (P = 0.0001), obese (P = 0.0001), and morbidly obese (P = 0.0001). A significant positive correlation of BMI was shown with HOMA-IR, hs-CRP, and Lp(a) levels.Conclusion:Elevated BMI in females is related to insulin resistance, elevated hs-CRP, and Lp(a), which confer a residual risk for CVD.

INTRODUCTION: Children born small for gestational age (SGA) are at risk of future obesity and associated comorbidities. Therefore the identification of risk factors and novel biomarkers which are associated with this risk are needed for early detection and to improve preventive strategies. Spexin (SPX), a novel neuropeptide that is involved in the regulation of obesity and fat metabolism, is a candidate biomarker for predicting obesity and related comorbidities at an early age. The aim of this study was to investigate serum levels of SPX in term infants born small, appropriate, and large for gestational age (LGA) and its association with newborn anthropometric measurements. METHODS: One hundred and twenty term newborn babies classified as SGA, appropriate for gestational age (AGA), or LGA and their mothers were included. SPX, leptin and visfatin were measured in cord blood and maternal serum by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. RESULTS: Fifty-six (46.7%) neonates were girls and 64 (53.3%) were boys. The mean birth weight was 3170.70±663 g, birth length was 48.9±2.79 cm, and head circumference was 34.5±1.67 cm. Birth weights, lengths, and head circumferences of the neonates in the SGA, AGA, and LGA groups were significantly different. Cord blood SPX and leptin levels in the SGA groups were significantly lower than those of both the LGA and AGA groups. Cord blood visfatin levels were significantly lower in the AGA group than the LGA and SGA groups. Maternal SPX levels of SGA babies were significantly lower than those of the mothers in both the LGA and AGA groups, but no significant difference was observed between the SGA and LGA groups. Maternal visfatin levels of the AGA babies were significantly higher than the maternal levels of SGA and LGA groups. There was no difference in terms of maternal leptin levels. Cord blood SPX and leptin levels were positively correlated with birth weight, length and head circumference. Birth weight increased significantly in line with maternal pregestational body mass index. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The lowest SPX levels were found in the SGA babies and cord SPX level was significantly correlated with newborn length, weight, and head circumference.

Abstract Infraslow activity (ISA) is a biomarker that has recently become of interest in the characterization of seizure recordings. Recent data from a small number of studies have suggested that the epileptogenic zone may be identified by the presence of ISA. Investigation of low frequency activity in clinical seizure recordings, however, has been hampered by technical limitations. EEG systems necessarily include a high-pass filter early in the measurement chain to remove large artifactual drifts that can saturate recording elements such as the amplifier. This filter, unfortunately, attenuates legitimately seizure-related low frequencies, making ISA difficult to study in clinical EEG recordings. In this study, we present a deconvolution-based digital inverse filter that allows recovery of attenuated low frequency activity in intracranial recordings of temporal lobe epilepsy patients. First, we show that the unit impulse response (UIR) of an EEG system can be characterized by differentiation of the system’s step response. As proof of method, we present several examples that show that the low frequency component of a high-pass filtered signal can be restored by deconvolution with the UIR. We then demonstrate that this method can be applied to biologically relevant signals including clinical EEG recordings obtained from seizure patients. Finally, we discuss how this method can be applied to study ISA to identify and assess the seizure onset zone.

The types and densities of honeyed plants vary depending on the altitude. This causes the amount and Physicochemical structure of honey produced in apiaries of different altitudes to change. In this study, honey harvest from the honeybee colonies placed at different altitudes in the same geographical region was carried out in the first week of September. Standard laboratory methods were used to determine some physicochemical properties of the honey samples. Some of the minimum and maximum average values obtained as a result of the analysis of honey samples; moisture 14.70% and 18.60%, free acidity 20.50 meq/kg and 25.30 meq/kg, pH 3.20 and 4.30, EC 0.22 and 0.44 mS/cm, fructose 32% to 45%, glucose 0.10% to 0.18%, sucrose from 0.66% 1.80%, maltose ranged from 0.66% to 1.80%. Also, HMF ranged from 1.80 mg/kg to 3.50 mg/kg, proline 530.00 mg/kg and 710.00 mg/kg, Density from 1.44 g/cm3 to 1.49 g/cm3, Invertase 20.30 U/kg-28.50 U/kg, Diastase activity 13.23-19.07 and Total phenolic content ranged from 76.00-94.00 g. It has been determined that the physicochemical structures of honey produced at different heights are statistically different from each other. This study aims to determine the effect of altitude difference on the quantity and physicochemical structure of honey.

Medicinal and aromatic plants are valuable sources of herbal products worldwide due to their secondary metabolite content, high antioxidant activities and many other biological activities. As a result of the developing technology, the demand for natural active substances obtained from plants has increased. For use, plants collected from nature do not have the desired quality standards. For this reason, sustainability can be achieved by using microbial inoculants as well as many biotechnological and molecular approaches such as micro propagation, synthetic seed technology to increase the yield and quality standards of medicinal and aromatic plants. Thanks to microbial inoculants, yield increase can be realized and at the same time, product quality can be contributed due to increased soil quality. In this review, it was aimed to evaluate the important roles of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), Arbiscular mycorrhizal fungi and Trichoderma inoculants in increasing productivity, nutrient uptake and resistance of medicinal and aromatic plants to environmental stresses in the light of literature. In this review, the variation in the resistance of plants to environmental stresses is summarized by evaluating the ultimate effects of microbial inoculants alone and in combination. In addition, it has been added to the evaluation in studies to prevent the decrease of secondary metabolite content formed under environmental stress conditions in medicinal and aromatic plants by microorganisms.

This study was carried out in the beekeeping research area of Bayburt University in order to determine the effect of odor and color on plant preference of honeybees in 2021. The experimental setup was established at a distance of 200 meters from the apiary where 80 Caucasian bees (Apis mellifera caucasica) colonies are located. As a result of the study, the most preferred feeders were the control group (pure sucrose syrup) (9.81 pieces), and the least preferred feeders were the rose-scent group (2.58). The effect of odor on honeybees' feed preferences varied according to months. Considering the effect of months on honeybees' visits to their feeders, the most visited feeders were Melissa (6.8) in June, control (11.69) in July, and control (14.58) in August. The highest number of feeder visits by honeybees was in August (9.24), and the lowest (2.89) in June. Considering the color preferences of honeybees, the most visited forage color was blue (5.98) and the least red was 4.89. The effect of colors on the feed preferences of honeybees also varied according to the months. The highest visitor bee average was found in the blue colored feeder (4.53) in June, the green colored feeder (7.24) in July, and the yellow and blue colored feeders (7.29) in August.

The aim of this paper is to introduce a novel study of obtaining exact solutions to the (2+1) - dimensional conformable KdV equation modeling the amplitude of the shallow-water waves in fluids or electrostatic wave potential in plasmas. The reduction of the governing equation to a simpler ordinary differential equation by wave transformation is the first step of the procedure. By using the improved tan(φ/2)-expansion method (ITEM) and Jacobi elliptic function expansion method, exact solutions including the hyperbolic function solution, rational function solution, soliton solution, traveling wave solution, and periodic wave solution of the considered equation have been obtained. We achieve also a numerical solution corresponding to the initial value problem by conformable variational iteration method (C-VIM) and give comparative results in tables. Moreover, by using Maple, some graphical simulations are done to see the behavior of these solutions with choosing the suitable parameters.

In this work, we consider a (2+1) dimensional nonlinear Schrödinger system which appears in the theory of nonlinear optics and describe transmission of the optical pulses in optical fibers. We attain certain special type traveling wave solutions of the under investigated model by help of finite series expansion and auxiliary differential equations. In this manner, we exploit exp(−ϕ(ε)) and modified Kudryashov approaches as solution procedures. Moreover, we make tanh ansatz because of the being even order of the reduced ordinary differential equation. The obtained solutions are in the form of dark soliton, combined soliton, symmetrical Lucas sine, Lucas cosine functions, and periodic wave solutions. We present also some graphical simulations of the solutions corresponding to values of parameters which leads to a better understanding the phenomena.

Objective: Caspase-1 is implicated in several important inflammatory diseases and controls adipocyte differentiation and insulin sensitivity. Interleukin-10 (IL-10) is an anti-inflammatory cytokine and plays an important role in chronic inflammatory conditions. This study was planned to determine if there is any relationship between Caspase-1 and IL-10 levels in women with PCOS. Materials and methods: Forty-two women with PCOS and thirty-seven healthy controls were evaluated in this controlled clinical study. Caspase-1 and IL-10 levels, serum lipid sub-fractions, fasting glucose, fasting insulin and other hormones (gonadotropins, androgens), malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) levels were measured. Homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) was used to estimate insulin resistance. Results: Free androgen index (FAI), HOMA-IR, MDA and Caspase-1 levels were significantly higher in subjects with PCOS. However, the women with PCOS had considerably lower GSH concentration levels than healthy subjects. Serum IL-10 levels were higher in study subjects than in controls, though it was statistically insignificant. Caspase-1 was positively associated with IL-10. Conclusion: These outcomes propose that Caspase-1 may have a role in triggering the processes leading to chronic low-grade inflammation in women with PCOS, independent of insulin resistance, androgen excess and oxidative stress. Nevertheless, the precise role of Caspase-1 in the pathogenesis of the disease remains to be elucidated. Keywords: Caspase-1, IL-10, PCOS, Insulin resistance, Oxidative stress