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Publication Open Access “Noise Factory”: a qualitative study exploring healthcare providers’ perceptions of noise in the intensive care unit(Elsevier, 2020) Güner, Perihan; Kebapçı, Ayda; Faculty Member; School of Nursing; 203808Objectives: this study aimed to explore healthcare providers’ perceptions of noise in the intensive care unit. Design: a qualitative exploratory study was conducted using group interviews. Setting: the setting comprised a total of 15 participants (five physicians and ten registered nurses) working in an 18-bed medical surgical intensive care unit at a teaching hospital in Istanbul, Turkey. Semi-structured questions were formulated and used in focus group interviews, after which the recorded interviews were transcribed by the researchers. Thematic analysis was used to identify significant statements and initial codes. Findings: four themes were identified: the meaning of noise, sources of noise, effects of noise and prevention and management of noise. It was found that noise was an inevitable feature of the intensive care unit. The most common sources of noise were human-induced. It was also determined that device-induced noise, such as alarms, did not produce a lot of noise; however, when staff were late in responding, the sound transformed into noise. Furthermore, it was observed that efforts to decrease noise levels taken by staff had only a momentary effect, changing nothing in the long term because the entire team failed to implement any initiatives consistently. The majority of nurses stated that they were now becoming insensitive to the noise due to the constant exposure to device-induced noise. Conclusion: the data obtained from this study showed that especially human-induced noise threatened healthcare providers’ cognitive task functions, concentration and job performance, impaired communication and negatively affected patient safety. In addition, it was determined that any precautions taken to reduce noise were not fully effective. A team approach should be used in managing noise in intensive care units with better awareness.Publication Open Access "Whole" vs "fragmented" approach to EAACI pollen season definitions: a multicenter study in six Southern European cities(Wiley, 2020) Hoffmann, Tara Maria; Şahin, Aydan Acar; Aggelidis, Xenophon; Arasi, Stefania; Barbalace, Andrea; Bourgoin, Anne; Bregu, Blerina; Brighetti, Maria Antonia; Caeiro, Elsa; Sozmen, Sule Caglayan; Caminiti, Lucia; Charpin, Denis; Couto, Mariana; Delgado, Luis; Businco, Andrea Di Rienzo; Dimier, Claire; Dimou, Maria, V; Fonseca, Joao A.; Göksel, Özlem; Güvensen, Aykut; Hernandez, Dolores; Jang, Dah Tay; Kalpaklıoğlu, Füsun; Lame, Blerta; Llusar, Ruth; Makris, Michael P.; Mazon, Angel; Mesonjesi, Eris; Nieto, Antonio; Pahus, Laurie; Pajno, Giovanni Battista; Panasiti, Ilenia; Panetta, Valentina; Papadopoulos, Nikolaos G.; Pellegrini, Elisabetta; Pelosi, Simone; Pereira, Ana Margarida; Pereira, Mariana; Pinar, Munevver; Pfaar, Oliver; Potapova, Ekaterina; Priftanji, Alfred; Psarros, Fotis; Sfika, Ifigenia; Suarez, Javier; Thibaudon, Michel; Travaglini, Alessandro; Tripodi, Salvatore; Verdier, Valentine; Villella, Valeria; Xepapadaki, Paraskevi; Matricardi, Paolo M.; Dramburg, Stephanie; Öztürk, Ayşe Bilge; Saçkesen, Cansın; Yazıcı, Duygu; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; PhD Student; Koç University Research Center for Translational Medicine (KUTTAM) / Koç Üniversitesi Translasyonel Tıp Araştırma Merkezi (KUTTAM); School of Medicine; Graduate School of Health Sciences; Koç University Hospital; 147629; 182537; N/ABackground: the adequate definition of pollen seasons is essential to facilitate a correct diagnosis, treatment choice, and outcome assessment in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis. A position paper by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) proposed season definitions for Northern and Middle Europe. Objective To test the pollen season definitions proposed by EAACI in six Mediterranean cities for seven pollen taxa. Methods: as part of the @IT.2020 multi-center study, pollen counts for Poaceae, Oleaceae, Fagales, Cupressaceae, Urticaceae (Parietaria spp.), and Compositae (Ambrosia spp., Artemisia spp.) were collected from January 1 to December 31, 2018. Based on these data, pollen seasons were identified according to EAACI criteria. A unified monitoring period for patients in AIT trials was created and assessed for feasibility. Results: the analysis revealed a great heterogeneity between the different locations in terms of pattern and length of the examined pollen seasons. Further, we found a fragmentation of pollen seasons in several segments (max. 8) separated by periods of low pollen counts (intercurrent periods). Potential monitoring periods included often many recording days with low pollen exposure (max. 341 days). Conclusion: the Mediterranean climate leads to challenging pollen exposure times. Monitoring periods for AIT trials based on existing definitions may include many intermittent days with low pollen concentrations. Therefore, it is necessary to find an adapted pollen season definition as individual solution for each pollen and geographical area.Publication Open Access #COVID19 and #Breastcancer: a qualitative analysis of tweets(Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 2022) Naganathan, G.; Cleland, J.; Reel, E.; Cil, T.; Bilgen, İdil; School of MedicineRapid and efficient communication regarding quickly evolving medical information was paramount for healthcare providers and patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last several years, social media platforms such as Twitter have emerged as important tools for health promotion, virtual learning among healthcare providers, and patient support. We conducted a qualitative thematic content analysis on tweets using the hashtags #BreastSurgery, #BreastCancer, #BreastOncology, #Pandemic, and #COVID19. Advocacy organizations were the most frequent authors of tweets captured in this dataset, and most tweets came from the United States of America (64%). Seventy-three codes were generated from the data, and, through iterative, inductive analysis, three major themes were developed: patient hesitancy and vulnerability, increased efforts in knowledge sharing, and evolving best practices. We found that Twitter was an effective way to share evolving best practices, education, and collective experiences among key stakeholders. As Twitter is increasingly used as a tool for health promotion and knowledge translation, a better understanding of how key stakeholders engage with healthcare-related topics on the platform can help optimize the use of this powerful tool.Publication Open Access 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels are low but not associated with disease activity in chronic spontaneous urticaria and depression(AEPress, 2020) Vurgun, Eren; Güntaş, Gürkan; Kocatürk Göncü, Özgür Emek; Memet, Bachar; Doctor; School of Medicine; Koç University Hospital; 217219; N/AAim: to evaluate vitamin D levels in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU), depression and both of them, thus to fi nd out whether vitamin D may be a common causative factor of CSU and depression. Methods: thirty patients with CSU, 30 patients with depression, 30 patients with both CSU and depression and 30 healthy volunteers as control group were involved in the study. Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) levels of these groups were measured and compared. Correlations between 25(OH)D levels and the activity of CSU and depression were analyzed. Results: healthy controls' 25(OH)D levels (17.2±8.8 ng/mL) were higher than patients with CSU (9.1±5.1 ng/mL), depression (8.9±6.1 ng/mL) and CSU with depression (7.7±4.7 ng/mL) (p<0.001, p<0.001 and p<0.001, respectively). There were no differences in 25(OH)D levels between CSU patients with and without depression, between depression patients and CSU patients with and without depression (p=0.43, p=0.82 and p=0.92, respectively). There were no correlations between 25(OH)D levels and the activity of CSU or depression (p=0.99 and p=0.76, respectively). Conclusion: Lower 25(OH)D levels in CSU and/or depression may appear as a secondary phenomenon, which means being result of these diseases rather than the cause (Tab. 1, Fig. 2, Ref. 41).
Publication Metadata only 3D printed biodegradable polyurethaneurea elastomer recapitulates skeletal muscle structure and function(American Chemical Society (ACS), 2021) Gokyer, Seyda; Berber, Emine; Vrana, Engin; Orhan, Kaan; Abou Monsef, Yanad; Guvener, Orcun; Zinnuroglu, Murat; Oto, Cagdas; Huri, Pinar Yilgor; Department of Chemistry; Department of Chemistry; Yılgör, Emel; Yılgör, İskender; Researcher; Faculty Member; Department of Chemistry; College of Sciences; College of Sciences; N/A; 24181Effective skeletal muscle tissue engineering relies on control over the scaffold architecture for providing muscle cells with the required directionality, together with a mechanical property match with the surrounding tissue. Although recent advances in 3D printing fulfill the first requirement, the available synthetic polymers either are too rigid or show unfavorable surface and degradation profiles for the latter. In addition, natural polymers that are generally used as hydrogels lack the required mechanical stability to withstand the forces exerted during muscle contraction. Therefore, one of the most important challenges in the 3D printing of soft and elastic tissues such as skeletal muscle is the limitation of the availability of elastic, durable, and biodegradable biomaterials. Herein, we have synthesized novel, biocompatible and biodegradable, elastomeric, segmented polyurethane and polyurethaneurea (TPU) copolymers which are amenable for 3D printing and show high elasticity, low modulus, controlled biodegradability, and improved wettability, compared to conventional polycaprolactone (PCL) and PCL-based TPUs. The degradation profile of the 3D printed TPU scaffold was in line with the potential tissue integration and scaffold replacement process. Even though TPU attracts macrophages in 2D configuration, its 3D printed form showed limited activated macrophage adhesion and induced muscle-like structure formation by C2C12 mouse myoblasts in vitro, while resulting in a significant increase in muscle regeneration in vivo in a tibialis anterior defect in a rat model. Effective muscle regeneration was confirmed with immunohistochemical assessment as well as evaluation of electrical activity produced by regenerated muscle by EMG analysis and its force generation via a custom-made force transducer. Micro-CT evaluation also revealed production of more muscle-like structures in the case of implantation of cell-laden 3D printed scaffolds. These results demonstrate that matching the tissue properties for a given application via use of tailor-made polymers can substantially contribute to the regenerative outcomes of 3D printed tissue engineering scaffolds.Publication Open Access 3D printing of elastomeric bioinspired complex adhesive microstructures(Wiley, 2021) Dayan, Cem Balda; Chun, Sungwoo; Krishna Subbaiah, Nagaraj; Drotlef, Dirk Michael; Akolpoğlu, Mükrime Birgül; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Sitti, Metin; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; College of Engineering; School of Medicine; 297104Bioinspired elastomeric structural adhesives can provide reversible and controllable adhesion on dry/wet and synthetic/biological surfaces for a broad range of commercial applications. Shape complexity and performance of the existing structural adhesives are limited by the used specific fabrication technique, such as molding. To overcome these limitations by proposing complex 3D microstructured adhesive designs, a 3D elastomeric microstructure fabrication approach is implemented using two-photon-polymerization-based 3D printing. A custom aliphatic urethane-acrylate-based elastomer is used as the 3D printing material. Two designs are demonstrated with two combined biological inspirations to show the advanced capabilities enabled by the proposed fabrication approach and custom elastomer. The first design focuses on springtail- and gecko-inspired hybrid microfiber adhesive, which has the multifunctionalities of side-surface liquid super-repellency, top-surface liquid super-repellency, and strong reversible adhesion features in a single fiber array. The second design primarily centers on octopus- and gecko-inspired hybrid adhesive, which exhibits the benefits of both octopus- and gecko-inspired microstructured adhesives for strong reversible adhesion on both wet and dry surfaces, such as skin. This fabrication approach could be used to produce many other 3D complex elastomeric structural adhesives for future real-world applications.Publication Metadata only [Ga-68]Ga-PSMA-11 and [F-18]FDG uptake of venous tumor thrombus in inferior vena cava and left common iliac vein from prostate cancer on positron emission tomography(Springer, 2023) Kabaoğlu, Zeynep Ünal; N/A; Seymen, Hülya; Esen, Barış; Kulaç, İbrahim; Aksoy, Murat; Demirkol, Mehmet Onur; Kordan, Yakup; Teaching Faculty; Teaching Faculty; Faculty Member; Other; Faculty Member; Faculty Member; School of Medicine; School of Medicine; School of Medicine; School of Medicine; School of Medicine; School of Medicine; 350778; 199167; 170305; N/A; 196946; 157552N/APublication Open Access A 19-year-old pregnant woman with pulmonary hypertension with progressive dyspnea(Elsevier, 2021) Avcı, Burçak Kılıçkıran; Tok, Özge Özden; Öngen, Zeki; Bozkaya, Tijen Alkan; Kalangos, Afksendiyos; Doctor; Faculty Member; School of Medicine; Koç University Hospital; N/A; 286247Case presentation: a 19-year-old pregnant woman at week 32 of gestation was referred to our clinic with progressive shortness of breath for the further evaluation and treatment of high-risk pregnancy. Her complaints had been existing since her childhood. Two years prior to her admission, she had been diagnosed with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction due to cardiomyopathy and associated pulmonary hypertension. The patient had no family history of any cardiac disease. She had never smoked or drunk alcohol. Her clinical condition had deteriorated progressively with the pregnancy.Publication Metadata only A 3-year-old child with multi-drug resistant epilepsy responding to pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments(Taylor & Francis, 2022) Yıldırım, Canan; N/A; Coşkun, Yeşim; Doctor; N/A; Koç University Hospital; N/AIntroduction: Despite the development of new antiseizure drugs (ASDs), around one third of epilepsy patients become refractory to treatment or experience adverse events due to ASDs. Therefore, discovery of new ASDs and new therapy options are crucial to improve the quality of life. Herein, we report a 3-year-old child with multi-drug resistant epilepsy caused by perinatal asphyxia whose seizures were reduced by 90% after the introduction of ketogenic diet, vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) AspireSR (SR-seizure response) and oral cannabidiol.Case presentation: A 9-month-old female infant had a history of multidrug resistant epilepsy due to perinatal asphyxia. At admission, she was experiencing up to 20-25 seizures per day lasting for 2-3 minutes. In addition to antiseizure drugs (ASDs), she was put on ketogenic diet (KD), vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) aspire seizure response (AspireSR) was inserted and oral cannabidiol (CBD) was started sequentially. Using pharmacological and nonph armacological therapies, her seizures have been reduced by 90%.Conclusion: The concurrent use of pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapies may be beneficial to improve seizures in infants with multi- Furthermore, our patient is the youngest child inserted VNS AspireSR in Turkey.Publication Metadata only A bioinspired stretchable membrane-based compliance sensor(Natl Acad Sciences, 2020) Matsuhisa, Naoji; You, Insang; Ruth, Sarah Rachel Arussy; Niu, Simiao; Foudeh, Amir; Tok, Jeffrey B. -H.; Chen, Xiaodong; Bao, Zhenan; Department of Mechanical Engineering; Beker, Levent; Faculty Member; Department of Mechanical Engineering; College of Engineering; 308798Compliance sensation is a unique feature of the human skin that electronic devices could not mimic via compact and thin form-factor devices. Due to the complex nature of the sensing mechanism, up to now, only high-precision or bulky handheld devices have been used to measure compliance of materials. This also prevents the development of electronic skin that is fully capable of mimicking human skin. Here, we developed a thin sensor that consists of a strain sensor coupled to a pressure sensor and is capable of identifying compliance of touched materials. The sensor can be easily integrated into robotic systems due to its small form factor. Results showed that the sensor is capable of classifying compliance of materials with high sensitivity allowing materials with various compliance to be identified. We integrated the sensor to a robotic finger to demonstrate the capability of the sensor for robotics. Further, the arrayed sensor configuration allows a compliance mapping which can enable humanlike sensations to robotic systems when grasping objects composed of multiple materials of varying compliance. These highly tunable sensors enable robotic systems to handle more advanced and complicated tasks such as classifying touched materials.