Ondokuz Mayıs University

Three novel mixed-ligand Ni(II) complexes were synthesized from 3,5-dihalogenosalicyladehyde-S-methyl isothiosemicarbazone ligand (3,5-dichloro for Complex I, 3,5-dibromo for Complex II, and 3,5-diiodo for Complex III) and diethanolamine. The synthesized compounds were...

In this study, resistance levels, WRKY gene expression, and epigenetic changes in barley cultivars commonly used in Türkiye were investigated against Fusarium culmorum, a phytopathogen resulting in a decrease in yield and product quality in barley production worldwide. Twenty-one barley cultivars were infected with the reference strain of F. culmorum FcUK99 at the seedling stage, and relatively sensitive (Akhisar 98) and resistant (Avcı 2002) cultivars to be used in the investigation of epigenetic changes and genomic stability by coupled restriction enzyme digestion-random amplification analysis were selected through comparison at the morphological level and the disease severity. Genomic template stability values were found to be 83% for sensitive barley cultivar Akhisar 98 and 90% for resistant cultivar Avcı 2002, and % polymorphism values for HapII and MspI restriction patterns were shown to be 22.3% and 37.8% for Akhisar 98, and 0% and 5.8% for Avcı 2002, respectively. The effects of pathogenicity on gene expression levels of seven WRKY genes selected as being mostly biotic stress-responsive showed significant differences between Avcı 2002 and Akhisar 98 cultivars. The sensitive barley cultivar Akhisar 98 presented a higher level of expression for WRKY9, WRKY25, WRKY33, WRKY34, WRKY41, and WRKY42 in comparison with the relatively resistant cultivar Avcı 2002, which presented a higher level of expression only for WRKY6 gene. Principal component analysis showed that a comparison of WRKY6 expression levels and GTS analysis were necessary for the selection of barley genotypes to be used in developing resistant/tolerant genotypes for effective disease management for sustainable agriculture.

Background The increase in the prevalence of erosion lesions worldwide has led researchers to develop effective toothpastes with different ingredients to prevent erosion that can protect the tooth surface against acid attacks. There remains a lack of consensus in the literature regarding which toothpaste formulation exhibits the most effective preventive action against erosive tooth wear, highlighting the necessity for further investigation in this field. This study aimed to evaluate the preventive effect of brushing with toothpastes with different ingredients on enamel and dentine erosion. Methods The crowns and roots of ninety recently extracted bovine incisors were seperated and ground flat to obtain enamel and dentine surfaces. The obtained specimens were then divided into six groups: Curaprox Enzycal Zero Flouride (fluoride-free), Colgate Total 12 (1450 ppm NaF), Splat Biocalcium (fluoride-free and Nano-HAP), Colgate ProRelief (1450 ppm NaF and arginine), Sensodyne Repair and Protection (1450 ppm NaF and novamin), Opalescence Whitening (1100 ppm NaF). The specimens were immersed in a demineralizing solution for 2 min and in an artificial saliva for 60 min 4 times a day for 5 days. Brushing was performed with the aid of a charged toothbrush immediately after the first and last erosive attacks. Initial and final surface roughness (at the end of fifth day) were measured using a 3D profilometer. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare initial and final roughness values (p < 0.05). Results Opalescence Whitening and Curaprox Enzycal Zero Fluoride significantly increased both enamel and dentine surface roughness compared to baseline, demonstrating rougher surfaces than all other groups except Colgate ProRelief (p < 0.001). Sensodyne Repair and Protection and Colgate Total 12 resulted in the smoothest enamel and dentine surfaces, respectively. The increase in surface roughness was significantly higher for enamel samples compared to dentine samples in the Opalescence Whitening group (p < 0.001). Conclusions Whitening toothpastes may exacerbate dental erosion by increasing surface roughness. The protective properties of fluoride-free toothpastes vary depending on their active ingredient.

This study introduces hyperbolic-valued Beurling weight functions and establishes bicomplex weighted Lebesgue spaces using these weight functions. Further, it examines several geometric properties of spaces, such as $\mathbb{B}$$\mathbb{C}$-convexity, $\mathbb{B}$$\mathbb{C}$-strict convexity, and $\mathbb{B}$$\mathbb{C}$-uniform convexity.

This study aims to identify factors predicting recurrence and unfavorable prognosis in cN+ patients who have undergone sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) following neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). The retrospective multi-centre “MF18-02” and the prospective multi-centre cohort registry trial “MF18-03” (NCT04250129) included patients with cT1-4N1-3M0 with SLNB+/− axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) post-NAC. A total of 2407 cN+ patients, who later achieved cN0 status after NAC and subsequently underwent SLNB, were studied. The majority had cT1-2 (79.1%) and N1 (80.7%). After a median follow-up time of 41 months, the rates of locoregional recurrence and axillary recurrence (AR) were 1.83% and 0.37%, respectively. No significant difference in locoregional recurrence or AR rates was observed between the SLNB/targeted axillary dissection-only (n = 1470) and ALND (n = 937) groups. Factors significantly linked with AR included age younger than 45 years, nonpathological complete response (non-pCR) in the breast, and nonluminal pathology. Locoregional recurrences were associated with nonluminal or HER2(+) pathology, non-pCR in the breast, and ALND. Poor prognostic factors for disease-free survival (DFS) included having cT3-T4, no breast pCR (non-pCR), ypN(+), and nonluminal pathology. No significant difference was found in DFS or disease-specific survival (DSS) rates among ypN0, ypN-isolated tumour cells, ypNmic, and ypN1. However, significant decreases in DFS and DSS rates were observed when comparing ypN2 or ypN3 disease with ypN0. The present large registry data indicate that younger patients (<45), those with nonluminal pathology, and those who only partially respond in the breast are more susceptible to axillary and locoregional recurrences.

Background Cardiovascular disease risk factors play a crucial role in determining individuals’ future health status and significantly affect health. This paper aimed to address cardiovascular disease risk factors in low- and middle-income countries using multi-criteria decision-making methods. Methods In line with this objective, 22 evaluation criteria were identified. Due to the unequal importance levels of the criteria, the interval-valued Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP (PF-AHP) method was employed for weighting. The TOPSIS method was utilized to rank the countries. Results The application of interval-valued PF-AHP revealed that metabolic, behavioral, and economic factors are more important in contributing to disease risk. Among adults, tobacco use prevalence was identified as the most significant risk factor. According to the TOPSIS method, Lebanon, Jordan, Solomon Islands, Serbia, and Bulgaria ranked highest, while Timor Leste, Benin, Ghana, Niger, and Ethiopia ranked lowest. Conclusions Identifying disease risk factors and preventing or reducing risks are crucial in combating cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is recommended that countries ranking higher take remedial actions to reduce disease risk.

The paper evaluates the impact of Agile implementation within organizations focusing on enhancing project delivery, customer satisfaction, team collaboration, productivity, and a culture of innovation. It seeks to determine Agile’s effectiveness through criteria such as customer contentment, team efficiency, delivery velocity, quality, adaptability, and stakeholder involvement, utilizing a survey of 1161 participants across various sectors. The analysis identifies four pivotal factors: work clarity and quality, business-IT alignment, risk and cost reduction, and management optimization. Agile’s success correlates with internal process and culture ratings, development methodologies, and interdepartmental teamwork, yielding benefits like heightened motivation, superior product quality, increased productivity, and cost savings. The essence of Agile transformation lies in improving team dynamics and product results, contingent on an organization’s inherent culture and processes. By endorsing collaboration, communication, and flexibility principles, Agile practices such as stand-ups and retrospectives foster continuous improvement and efficient problem-solving. The organizational culture’s perception significantly influences Agile’s successful adoption, with a transparent and empowering environment enhancing its integration. It leads to a virtuous cycle of productivity and improved product support. Moreover, Agile methodologies enhance resource efficiency via team and departmental coordination, with frameworks like Scrum and Kanban facilitating cost reduction and expedited delivery, ensuring business goals and development efforts are well-aligned.

Degenerative changes in the skeletal system of dogs may occur as a consequence of aging, trauma, infection, or inflammation. The object of this study consisted of an 8-year-old male Labrador dog that was brought to a private veterinary clinic after a road traffic accident and died despite all interventions. For a different study planned in our department, CT images were taken of the Labrador retriever’s humerus and osteophytes to encounter incidentally were investigated for found in these images. After the CT scan, the dissected humerus bones were boiled to remove soft tissues. Subsequently, the bones were underwent with a 10% hydrogen peroxide solution for bleaching. Osteophytes in the proximal part of the humerus extended from the tuberculum majus and tuberculum minus towards the cranial direction, forming a complete ring-like structure at the level of the sulcus intertubercularis in the left humerus. Although not fully ring-shaped, similar osteophytes were found in the right humerus. In addition, it was observed that the foramen supratrochleare seen in the left humerus in the CT images was covered with a thin membrane during dissection. The presence of this membrane suggested that it might be due to the joint not being able to reach sufficient extension due to osteophytes forming in the bone. Additionally, it was concluded that CT may not recognize thin, non-mineralized septations, such as the membrane obliterating the supratrochlear foramen, as observed during necropsy.

Introduction Topical therapies are used in almost all patients with psoriasis. A novel fixed topical combination cream (GN-037) with a lower concentration (0.0356%) of clobetasol 17-propionate (CP) was developed together with urea, salicylic acid, and retinoic acid to provide a better benefit–risk ratio. The present multicenter randomized double-blind vehicle-controlled parallel group phase 2 study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of GN-037 in patients with mild-to-moderate plaque psoriasis (MMPP). Methods Patients ( n = 190) were randomized (2:2:1) to receive GN-037 or CP or vehicle (V) cream twice daily to a selected target body lesion for 4 weeks. The primary endpoint was treatment success defined as percentage of patients with at least two-grade improvement in Investigator’s Global Assessment Score (IGA) and IGA score equal to 0 or 1 evaluated at weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8 in each arm compared with baseline. Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and safety were evaluated throughout the study. Results GN-037 demonstrated statistically significant superiority over V throughout the study. At week 4, treatment success was achieved in 37.9% of patients in the GN-037 arm compared with 29.2% and 9.1% in the CP and V arms, respectively. At least two-grade improvement compared with baseline was achieved by 57.6%, 72.7%, and 80.3% of the patients in the GN-037 arm for erythema, plaque elevation, and scaling, respectively. The mean changes in affected BSA were −2.1 ± 2.9, −1.8 ± 2.4, and −0.5 ± 1.6 in the GN-037, CP, and V arms, respectively. The TEAEs were similar among the arms and the most frequently observed TEAEs were Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) increase in all arms. Conclusions GN-037 was more effective than V in achieving primary and all secondary endpoints throughout the study. Safety data did not reveal any new safety concerns with the combination cream product. Therefore, 4 weeks of GN-037 treatment demonstrated an excellent efficacy and safety profile in patients with MMPP. Trial Registration number ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT05706870.

Introduction Irrigation plays an imperative role in the expansion of agriculture production and productivity growth that reduces food security. Implementing irrigation schemes is a crucial step towards ending poverty and enhancing food security. A strong association between farmers’ engagement in irrigated agriculture boosts households’ annual income and food expenditure and improves households’ food security. To what extent, though, does the households’ food security in the Dessie Zuria District that employs irrigation surpass the food security of other households that rely on rainfall remains unclear. In addition, there is not enough information available in the research area about how irrigation affects household income or expenditure and food security. Thus, this study aims to assess the factors influencing households’ participation in small-scale irrigation and the effect of irrigation on food security. This study covers the severity of the issue and closes any gaps. Methods Multistage random sampling was used to consider the proportion of the heterogeneous groups to the entire population. The data were gathered in 2023 at Dessie Zuria District from a survey of 198 households (92 small-scale irrigation users and 106 non-users). Utilizing the logistic regression model, the variables affecting the likelihood of small-scale irrigation engagement were examined. Propensity Score Matching was used to examine the impacts of small-scale irrigation on households’ food security using the household’s annual income and their annual food expenditure as proxy variables. Eleven explanatory variables were used and a logit analysis result showed household family size, livestock holding in total livestock unit, access to credit, sex of households, and cultivable land were found as the main factors of small-scale irrigation participation. Results The Propensity Score Matching model result indicates that the adoption of small-scale irrigation increases the average annual income and annual food expenditure by 60, 273.27 (54.88%) and 5,589.12 (55.31%) Ethiopian Birr, respectively. Therefore, to recover the food security of agricultural households’ current situation stakeholders should give due attention to the growth of small-scale irrigation.

Reliable, repeatable, and flexible testing is crucial for assessing system performance and ensuring the quality of communication. In reverberation chambers (RC), real-life propagation environments can be emulated by loading absorbers, facilitating controlled testing of the system. This work presents over-the-air (OTA) testing of the LTE-A PHY layer in the RC. We assessed the performance of the LTE-A link using key performance indicators (KPIs) such as error vector magnitude (EVM), bit error rate (BER), and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for varying transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) gains. Additionally, we have compared the results both in an empty RC and when the RC was loaded with RF absorbers. We used software-defined radio (SDR) for OTA transmission of LTE-A frames. The measurement results indicate that loading the RC with RF absorbers improves EVM, BER, and SNR. We also quantified the performance of the LTE-A link by changing the position of RF absorbers. Results showed that loading absorbers yielded up to 72.8% improvement in EVM, and placing absorbers closer to Rx helped reduce the amount of multipath, resulting in better transmission performance.

Infectious pancreatic necrosis (IPN) has highly contagious disease and an important viral disease-causing economic loss for fish farming, which has developed in recent years. The virus is the first fish virus isolated in vitro. Horizontal and vertical transmission plays an important role in the spread of the virus. In addition, the resistance of the virus to environmental conditions makes it difficult to control the virus. Therefore, it is important to develop vaccines and analyze the effectivity of antivirals for the prevention and control of infectious pancreatic necrosis virus (IPNV) infection. This study investigated the antiviral effect of two different mutagens, ribavirin (RBV) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), on IPNV, and their mutation-inducing potential on the susceptible cell line Epithelioma papulosum cyprini (EPC), in vitro. For this purpose, cytotoxic doses of RBV and 5-FU were first investigated and were found to be 50 and 100 µM/mL, respectively. Serial passages of IPNV were then performed, both with and without drug suppression. At the end of each passage, confirmation was performed by real-time transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Serial passages were checked for viral load using quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). The viral copy number of the RBV-suppressed virus decreased from 1.18 × 10⁵ copies/µL for the 1st passage to 1.49 × 10² copies/µL at the end of the 5th passage. The viral copy number of the 5-FU-suppressed virus decreased gradually with each passage, from 3.84 × 10³ copies/µL for the 1st passage to 1.78 × 10² copies/µL at the end of the 5th passage, with the exception of the 2nd passage, where the viral load increased. Passages 1st and 5th of both the RBV- and 5-FU-suppressed virus, and the non-drug-suppressed virus, were checked by partial sequence, but mutations in VP2 were not observed. In conclusion, in this study, we obtained data on the antiviral activity of two mutagens on IPNV.

Background Healthcare professionals serving in the earthquake zone may experience mental problems due to the traumatic events they witnessed. Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of working in earthquake-affected areas on compassion fatigue and coping strategies for earthquake stress in healthcare professionals compared to a control group. Methods This descriptive and correlational study was conducted in three provinces in the northern region of Türkiye. The sample of the study consisted of 146 healthcare professionals working in earthquake-affected regions and 143 healthcare professionals not working in earthquake-affected regions. Data were collected using the ‘Descriptive Information Form’, ‘Compassion Fatigue Short Scale (CF-SS)’, and ‘Coping with Earthquake Stress Scale (CESS)’. Descriptive statistics, t-test for independent samples, Pearson correlation analysis and binary logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results Statistically significant differences were found between healthcare professionals working in earthquake-affected regions and healthcare professionals not working in these regions in terms of CF-SS total scores, ‘occupational burnout’ sub-dimension mean scores and ‘seeking social support’ mean scores among CESS sub-dimension mean scores ( p < .05). However, no statistically significant difference was found between the mean scores of ‘secondary trauma’ sub-dimension of CF-SS and total-CESS, ‘religious coping’, and ‘positive reappraisal’ ( p > .05). A high and positive correlation ( r = .805; r = .847; r = .847; r = .695, p < .001) was found between total CF-SS scores and total religious coping, positive reappraisal and seeking social support scores of the participants. In addition, working in the earthquake zone negatively affects positive reappraisal and positively affects seeking social support as a significant predictor (β = .081, OR = 0.922, p < .05; β = .111, OR = 1.117, p < .05). Conclusion A significant positive relationship was observed between compassion fatigue and coping with earthquake stress. At the same time, it was determined that having worked in the regions affected by earthquakes had a strong positive effect on coping strategies with earthquake stress.

Peripheral nerve injuries are commonly encountered in clinical practice. Peripheral nerve injuries most commonly result in serious problems affecting quality of life. The present study is designed to research the possible neuroprotective effects of Ankaferd blood stopper (ABS), platelet-rich plasma (PRP), and Momordica charantia (MC) on regeneration using unbiased stereological techniques. In total, 30 female 8–10 week Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into five equal groups; control (CG), the group exposed to sciatic nerve resection (Gap) (CGG), additionally following the surgical process ABS, MC, and PRP were injected into collagen tube (ABSG, MCG, PRPG). Nucleator and fractionator methods were used to estimate the number of myelinated and unmyelinated axons, axon area, and myelin sheath thickness. Also, an electron microscopic evaluation was performed. Regarding the number of myelinated axons, significant increases were found in the ABSG, MCG, and PRPG compared with CG (p < 0.05). The protective effects of ABS, PRP, and MC on peripheral nerve regeneration in experimental models in rats were shown using electrophysiological and stereological assessment parameters.