Evaluation of serum ischaemia-modified albumin levels in patients with Bell's palsy.

OBJECTIVE: This prospective study aimed to evaluate the relationship between serum ischaemia-modified albumin levels and Bell's palsy severity. METHODS: The study included 30 patients diagnosed with Bell's palsy and 30 healthy individuals. The patients were separated into three disease severity groups (grades 2, 3 and 4) according to House-Brackmann classification. Blood samples were collected from all participants and the results compared between groups. RESULTS: Significant differences in serum ischaemia-modified albumin were found between the study and control groups (p < 0.001); values were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group. CONCLUSION: The significantly higher levels of serum ischaemia-modified albumin in the study group suggest that Bell's palsy pathogenesis is associated with oxidative stress.

Nasal eosinophilia in nasal smears of patients with persistent and intermittent allergic rhinitis.

BACKGROUND: Eosinophils are the principal effector cells involved in the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis. Cell numbers increase in non-allergic rhinitis patients with eosinophilia, aspirin hypersensitivity and nasal polyposis, as well as in allergic rhinitis patients. Exfoliative nasal cytology can be used in the differential diagnosis of allergic rhinitis. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate nasal eosinophilia in nasal smears of patients with mild, persistent and intermittent allergic rhinitis. METHODS: The study comprised 60 patients with allergic rhinitis and 20 healthy volunteers. The patients were divided into intermittent and persistent allergic rhinitis groups. Nasal smear status, eosinophil numbers and Total Nasal Symptom Scores were compared. RESULTS: Nasal smear results were pathological in 40 of 60 allergic rhinitis patients, which was significantly higher than the rate in controls. The mean nasal eosinophilia score was significantly higher in the intermittent allergic rhinitis than in the persistent allergic rhinitis group (p = 0.029). There was a positive correlation between nasal eosinophilia score and Total Nasal Symptom Score (r = 0.652; p < 0.05) in persistent allergic rhinitis and intermittent allergic rhinitis patients. CONCLUSION: The nasal smear test is inexpensive, objective and simple to perform, and should be part of the diagnostic investigation.

Effects of physical and depressive symptoms on the sexual life of Turkish women in the climacteric period.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of physical and depressive symptoms on the sexual life of women in the climacteric period. METHODS: This study was conducted with 572 women at a university hospital. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) and Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) were used to evaluate depressive symptoms, intensity of menopausal symptoms and sexual function. RESULTS: Sexual dysfunction and depressive symptoms were determined in 86.4% and 54.9% of the women, respectively. In univariate analysis, women without health insurance, with low income, being married for longer than 21 years and being in menopause had low FSFI but high BDI and MRS scores. In multiple regression analysis, advanced age of women, women with low income, unemployed women, low educated women and their husbands and women with depressive symptoms had low FSFI scores. There was a negative relationship between total FSFI and MRS and BDI scores. CONCLUSION: Determination and treatment of sexual, emotional and physical problems in the climacteric period are very important for the improvement of the quality of life of women.

Evaluation of sexual functions and marital adjustment of pregnant women in Turkey.

The aim of this study was to evaluate pregnant women's sexual function and marital adjustment. The sample of the study included 298 women, and it was evaluated using Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS) Scale and Marital Adjustment Scale. The most important reasons for decreasing the frequency of sexual intercourse included the fear of harming the fetus during intercourse (62.1%), fear of having miscarriage (47.8%) and decreased sexual desire (34.7%). It was found that women with sexual dysfunction had a significantly lower educational level, were living with three or more people in their home, were multiparious, had an unplanned pregnancy, reported pain during sexual intercourse and felt that their sexual life was very affected during pregnancy. The findings of the study showed that women had ⩾5 points for GRISS for the subscales as follows: infrequency (47.3%), non-communication (57.4%), dissatisfaction (15.4%), avoidance (6.4%), non-sensuality (19.1%), vaginismus (28.9%), anorgasmia (29.9%) and sexual dysfunction (17.4%). In conclusion, women who were living with three or more people at home, had lower income level, were smoking and had an unplanned pregnancy scored under 43.5 of MAS. It was found negative and there was a medium correlation between MAS score and total GRISS score.

Quantum transport through a Coulomb blockaded quantum emitter coupled to a plasmonic dimer.

We study the electron transmission through a Coulomb blockaded quantum emitter coupled to metal nanoparticles possessing plasmon resonances by employing the time-dependent non-crossing approximation. We find that the coupling of the nanoparticle plasmons with the excitons results in a significant enhancement of the conductance through the discrete state with higher energy beyond the unitarity limit while the other discrete state with lower energy remains Coulomb blockaded. We show that boosting the plasmon-exciton coupling well below the Kondo temperature increases the enhancement adding another quantum of counductance upon saturation. Finite bias and increasing emitter resonance energy tend to reduce this enhancement. We attribute these observations to the opening of an additional transport channel via the plasmon-exciton coupling.

Strongly correlated plexcitonics: evolution of the Fano resonance in the presence of Kondo correlations.

We study the optical absorption of a system consisting of a diatomic molecule that exhibits strong electron correlations coupled to metal nanoparticles possessing plasmon resonances by invoking the time-dependent non-crossing approximation. We investigate the evolution of the Fano resonance arising from the plasmon-exciton coupling when both atoms are Coulomb blockaded. We found that the Fano resonance rapidly dwindles as the ambient temperature exceeds the Kondo temperature of the singly occupied discrete state with higher energy and vanishes entirely at elevated temperatures. Our results show that even boosting the plasmon-exciton coupling above this temperature scale fails to revive the Fano resonance. We propose a microscopic model that accounts for these results. We suggest that a possible remedy for observation of the Fano resonance at high ambient temperatures is to position the singly occupied discrete state with the higher energy as close as possible to the Fermi level of the contacts while keeping the emitter resonance constant to prevent the merger of the Fano and plasmon resonances.

Premenstrual syndrome in Turkish medical students and their quality of life.

This study aimed to analyse the frequency and symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and its effect on quality of life in medical students. Sociodemographic data, a symptom calendar for the following consecutive two menstrual periods and SF-36 quality of life questionnaire were collected. A total of 228 students joined the survey. The average age of the students was 20.77 ± 1.90. The frequency of PMS was 91.8%. The most frequent symptoms were abdominal bloating (89.5%), irritability (88.3%) and breast tenderness (82.6%). Quality of life scores ranged from 17.00 to 97.00 and were lowest in the severe PMS group. Alcohol consumption, stress events and fat rich diets increased the severity of PMS. Family history significantly affected the severity of PMS and quality of life scores. Premenstrual syndrome was found to be a frequent entity among medical students and seemed to affect quality of life in a moderate way.

Designer thermal switches: the effect of the contact material on instantaneous thermoelectric transport through a strongly interacting quantum dot.

We investigate the effect of contact material on the instantaneous thermoelectric response of a quantum dot pushed suddenly into the Kondo regime via a gate voltage using time dependent non-crossing approximation and linear response Onsager relations. We utilize graphene and metal contacts for this purpose. Instantaneous thermopower displays sinusoidal oscillations whose frequency is proportional to the energy separation between the van Hove singularity in the contact density of states and the Fermi level for both cases, regardless of the asymmetry factor at the onset of the Kondo timescale. The amplitude of the oscillations increases with decreasing temperature, saturating around the Kondo temperature. We also calculate the instantaneous figure of merit and show that the oscillations taking place at temperatures above the Kondo temperature are enhanced more than the ones occurring at lower temperatures due to the violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law. Graphene emerges as a more promising electrode candidate than ordinary metals in single electron devices since it can minimize these oscillations.

Temporal evolution of the Seebeck coefficient in an ac driven strongly correlated quantum dot.

We study the response of the thermopower of a quantum dot in the Kondo regime to sinusoidal displacement of the dot energy level via a gate voltage using time dependent non-crossing approximation and linear response Onsager relations. Instantaneous thermopower begins to exhibit complex fluctuations when the driving amplitude is increased at constant driving frequency. We also find that the time averaged thermopower decreases steadily until it saturates at constant driving amplitude as a function of inverse driving frequency. On the other hand, time averaged thermopower is found to be quite sensitive to ambient temperature at all driving frequencies for large driving amplitudes. We discuss the underlying microscopic mechanism for these peculiarities based on the behaviour of the dot density of states.

Transient electron dynamics in a vibrating quantum dot in the Kondo regime.

We employ the time-dependent non-crossing approximation to investigate the joint effect of strong electron-electron and electron-phonon interaction on the instantaneous conductance of a single-molecule transistor which is abruptly moved into the Kondo regime by means of a gate voltage. We find that the instantaneous conductance exhibits decaying sinusoidal oscillations on the long timescale for infinitesimal bias. The ambient temperature and electron-phonon coupling strength influence the amplitude of these oscillations. The frequency of the oscillations is found to be equal to the phonon frequency. We argue that the origin of these oscillations can be attributed to the interference between the emerging Kondo resonance and its phonon sidebands. We discuss the effect of finite bias on these oscillations.

Quality of life in women with gynecologic cancer in Turkey.

AIM: The management of gynecological cancer patients mainly aims at prolonging survival but modern therapy focuses on good survival combined with a good quality of life (QoL). The aim of this study was to evaluate QoL and identify its associated factors in Turkish women with gynecologic cancer. METHOD: The study included 119 women diagnosed with endometrial, cervical, ovarian or vulvar cancer and treated at the Gynecologic Oncology Department of Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine. The data were collected between January and June 2011. QoL was measured with EORTC QLQ-C30 version 3.0. Relationships between clinical and socio- demographic characteristics and QoL scores were analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis and t-tests. RESULT: Global health status, physical and role function scores were found higher in women under the age of 60 years. Role function scores were found lower, and emotional and social scores were found to be higher in single women than in married women. Physical scores were found higher in women who had graduated from secondary school or above. Women with ovarian cancer had the highest while women with cervical cancer had the lowest global health score (65.3 ± 24.7 and 43.0 ± 24.1, respectively). Women with endometrial cancer were found to have better role function, and social well being than those with vulvar, cervical or ovarian cancer. Global, physical, role function, cognitive and social scores were found higher in women who had been treated with surgery. CONCLUSION: Gynecological cancer and treatment processes cause significant problems that have negative effects on physical, emotional, social and role function aspects of QoL. Health care providers play a key role in the identification and treatment of the complications of cancer therapy. Minimizing the effect of the symptoms of gynecologic cancer may positively impact on patient QoL.