• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1913-1917
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• 2015

Background: Oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is endemic in the Eastern Anatolian region of Turkey. The present study was performed to identify risk factors for ESCC that specifically reflect the demography and nutritional habits of individuals living in this region. Materials and Methods: The following parameters were compared in 208 ESCC patients and 200 control individuals in the Eastern Anatolian region: age, sex, place of living, socioeconomic level, education level, smoking, alcohol intake, nutritional habits, and food preservation methods. Results: The mean age of ESCC patients was 56.2 years, and 87 (41.8%) were 65 years-old or older. The ratio of women to men in the patient group was 1.39/1. ESCC patients consumed significantly less fruit and yellow or green vegetables and more hot black tea, 'boiled yellow butter', and mouldy cheese than did control individuals. Residence in rural areas, smoking, and cooking food by burning animal manure were also significantly associated with ESCC. Conclusions: The consumption of boiled yellow butter and mouldy cheese, which are specific to the Eastern Anatolian region, and the use of animal manure for food preparation were identified as risk factors in this region. Further studies are required to potentially identify the carcinogenic substances that promote the development of ESCC in this region.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.893-910
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• 2015

Earthquake safety of existing buildings has gained considerable importance after earthquakes which have occurred in our country especially in the last 30 years. Performance based assessment methods have been widely used for existing reinforced concrete structures. This study aims to investigate the earthquake performances of the building stock located in Van Lake basin in Eastern Anatolia of Turkey. The case study of buildings has been modeled on and the structural performances have been determined by employing the non-linear methods described in the latest Turkish Earthquake Code published in 2007. The Van lake basin is located on the very seismically active in a region. On October 23, 2011, a magnitude of Mw 7.2 earthquake struck the Van province in eastern Turkey. The earthquake ground motion was recorded as about 0.1g in Bitlis province. Performance evaluations have been performed by taking samples from each district consisting urban building stocks of Bitlis. A total of 16 reinforced concrete buildings have been evaluated. Among them, 53% of those buildings were determined in the Fully Operational performance level; 13% of them in the Life Safety performance and 34% of them could not be evaluated because of the ratio of the effective mass of first mode to the total mass of the buildings was smaller than 0.70. Therefore, incremental equivalent seismic load methods, which are a part of Turkish Earthquake Code -2007, cannot be used.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.325-335
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• 2021

The majority of Turkey's geography is at risk of earthquakes. Within the borders of Turkey, including the two major active faults contain the North-Eastern and Eastern Anatolia, earthquake, threatening the safety of life and property. On January 24, 2020, an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 occurred at 8:55 p.m. local time. According to the data obtained from the stations in the region, peak ground acceleration in the east-west direction was measured as 0.292 g from the 2308 coded station in Sivrice. It is thought that the earthquake with a magnitude of Mw 6.8 was developed on the Sivrice-Puturge segment of the Eastern Anatolian Fault, which is a left lateral strike slip fault, and the tear developed in an area of 50-55 km. Aftershocks ranging from 0.8 to 5.1 Mw occurred following the main shock on the Eastern Anatolian Fault. The earthquake caused severe structural damages in Elazığ and neighboring provinces. As a result of the field investigations carried out in this study, significant damage levels were observed in the buildings since it did not meet the criteria in the earthquake codes. Within the study's scope, the structural damage cases in reinforced concrete and masonry structures were investigated. Many structural deficiencies and mistakes such as non-ductile details, poor concrete quality, short columns, strong beams-weak columns mechanism, large and heavy overhangs, masonry building damages and inadequate reinforcement arrangements were observed. Requirements of seismic codes are discussed and compared with observed earthquake damage.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.1989-1993
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• 2013

Background: Lung cancer is the most frequent cancer among men and second highest among women overall, including in Turkey. Cigarette smoking is the most important etiologic factor for the development of cancer in both men and women. Objective: To determine the lung cancer incidence in Northeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey with a focus on clinical properties, cancer subtypes, the relationships of tumors with cigarette smoking and radiological properties of the lesions. Materials and Methods: In a retrospective study design, 566 lung cancer cases diagnosed at the Pathology Department of Ataturk University in Erzurum over the last seven years extending from January 2006 to June 2012 were investigated. The results were compared with statistical analyses. Results: The most common histopathological subtype of primary bronchogenic carcinoma in our study was found to be the squamous cell carcinoma, 46.1% (261 out of 566), and the second was small cell lung carcinoma 15.7% (89 out of 566). Based on our data, an overall male predominance was noted with a male/female ratio of 6.1/1. While 296 (52.2%) of the patients were found to be smokers at the time of diagnosis, 125 (22.0%) were nonsmokers and 145 (25.6%) were ex-smokers. Smoking status was found to have a strong correlation with primary lung cancer (p<0.05), and there were significant differences between males and females (p<0.001). Conclusion: Although relative prominence of subtypes of lung cancers differ between Turkish and other populations, lung cancer overall remains as an important health problem in Turkey. Our findings stress the critical need for effective cancer prevention programs such as anti-smoking campaigns.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.87-111
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• 2013

Regional disparities between eastern and western regions is the most of serious problem for balanced regional development in Turkey. The Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) is being implemented to eliminate these regional development disparities. The work that was initially planned as predominantly for hydraulic energy production to utilize water resources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers more effectively was later transformed into an integrated multi-sector regional development project. This study noted that this region had very limited cash crop production because of the constraints of semi-arid climate of the southeastern region, however, later, it has changed Turkey's major cotton producing region since Southeastern Anatolia Project carried out. Therefore, this study investigated background, process, and content of the Southeastern Anatolia Project with respect to high cotton productivity in this region and examined the dynamic changes of cotton productivity in this region. In addition, Sanliurfa prefecture is one of the main development axes of the Southeastern Anatolia Project, because government investments are concentrated on this prefecture. Therefore, this study examined the background and process of cotton farming growth in this prefecture. In 2011, Sanliurfa prefecture produced 37.6% of Turkey's total cotton production. This is mainly due to agricultural infrastructure expansion such as land consolidation, irrigation, roads and farm roads. Also, it is one of the main factor that subsidies paid to farmers for cotton cultivation. The introduction of irrigation has dramatically changed the direction of seasonal migration of this area. Prior to irrigation, this area had a serious social issue about out-migration for seasonal labor to other areas. However, the introduction of irrigation made this area that changed to in-migration and intramigration for cotton cultivation. Irrigation water is supplied to farmers through the WUAs (Water User Associations) that handed over irrigation water management, operation from DSI (General Directorate of State of Hydraulic Works). However, the WUAs are under the influence of Ashiret, a traditional feudal social structure. Because of this reason, it does not have an efficient management for farmers. Also, it is one of the reasons that this area does not have autonomous farmer organization.

• Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.156-163
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• 2017

A greenhouse experiment was conducted for evaluation of ecological effects of transgenic melon plants in the rhizospheric soil in terms of soil properties, enzyme activities and microbial communities. Organic matter content of soil under transgenic melon plants was significantly higher than that of soil with non-transgenic melon plants. Significant variations were observed in organic matter, total P and K in soil cultivation with transgenic melon plants. There were also significant variations in the total numbers of colony forming units of fungi, actinomycetes and bacteria between soils treated with transgenic and non-transgenic melon plants. Transgenic and non-transgenic melon significantly enhanced several enzymes activities including urease, acid phosphatase, alkalin phosphatase, arysulphtase, ${\beta}$ glucosidase, dehydrogenase, protease and catalase. Soil polyphenoloxidase activity of $T_1$ transgenic melon was lower than that of $T_0$ transgenic melon and a non-melon plant during the same period. The first generation transgenic melon plants ($T_0$) showed significantly greater (p<0.05) effect on the activitiy of arylsulfatase, which increased from $2.540{\times}10^6CFU\;g^{-1}$ (control) to $19.860{\times}10^6CFU\;g^{-1}$ ($T_0$). These results clearly indicated that transgenic melon might change microbial communities, enzyme activities and soil chemical properties.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.119-135
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• 2016

The initial phase of the Mongol invasion resulted in the establishment of relative political stability in the vast expanses of Eurasia, which came under the control of a single political entity - the Mongol realm. This contributed to a fairly rapid restoration of the commercial links and trade routes between the East and the West. During this period, Chinese silk again became available in large quantities in the Western markets. At the same time, the beginning of silk production and manufacturing of silk fabrics in Italy and the fashion flash for these goods in Western countries affected trade between Europe and the Muslim world. The centers of silk production in the Ilkhanid Empire were some provinces of Azerbaijan and Persia, where from it was exported in large numbers along the trade routes of Anatolia and Syria to the Mediterranean ports and further to the west. There are numerous testimonies of European travelers, and Muslim authors related the international silk trade in 13th-15th centuries, ie in the era from the Mongol Ilkhanid Empire till the reign of the Turkman Aqqoyunlu dynasty. One of the most informative documentary sources on this issue are the legislative codes (kanuname) of sultan Uzun Hasan from the Aqqoyunlu dynasty regarding the eastern provinces of the Asia Minor. This article presents and analyzes the information from these documents concerning the whole range of goods related to silk and silk fabrics trade in the period under the consideration.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5127-5131
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• 2014

Background: Cervical cancer is the ninth most common cancer among females in Turkey. Cervical smear is a routine screening test used for the detection of cervical abnormalities and also it detects certain infections of the cervix. Objective: To analyze cervical smear results of our clinic in order to determine most frequent pathology of the women in North Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Materials and Methods: In a retrospective study design, 8,495 cervical cytology cases diagnosed at the Pathology Department of the Regional Education and Research Hospital in Erzurum over the last one and half years extending from August 2012 to December 2013 were investigated. Results: The most common diagnosis was found to be inflammation, 65.5 % (5,566 out of 8,495), and the least was squamous epithelial abnormalities 0.2% (13 out of 8,495). There was some variation among the three pathologists regarding diagnosis but findings for the latter. Conclusions: Regular cervical smear tests are one of the most important strategies in early diagnosis of cervical cancer but there are conflicting data regarding the prevalence of epithelial cell abnormalities in Turkey, and the reasons o f this should be investigated.