Oral booster-single strain probiotic bifidobacteria could be a potential strategy for SARS-CoV-2. This study aims to evaluate the role of oral probiotic Bifidobacterium on moderate/severe SARS-CoV-2 inpatients. In this single-center study, we analyzed data of 44 moderate/severe inpatients with diagnosed COVID-19 in Istanbul Maltepe University Medical Faculty Hospital, 2020 from 1 November 2020 to 15 December 2020. Clinical and medication features were compared and analyzed between patients with or without probiotic. In result, 19 of the 44 patients (43.18%) who were administrated with oral booster-single strain probiotic were discharged with the median inpatient day of 7.6 days which were significantly shorter than those of patients without probiotic. There were significant differences in inpatient days, radiological improvement at day 6 and week 3, and reduction in interleukin-6 levels in those receiving oral probiotic therapy. Although the mortality rate was 5% in the probiotic group, it was 25% in the non-probiotic group. Booster-single strain probiotic bifidobacteria could be an effective treatment strategy for moderate/severe SARS-CoV-2 inpatients to reduce the mortality and length of stay in hospital.

PurposeThe paper aims to examine the concept of architectural design communication (ADC) for updating design studio dynamics in architectural education during the Covid-19 pandemic. Within this perspective, the changing and transforming contents of architectural education, the thinking, representation and production mediums are examined through the determined components of ADC. There are five components in the study, which are (1) Effective Language Use, (2) Effective use of Handcrafts, (3) Effective Technical Drawing Knowledge, (4) Effective Architectural Software Knowledge and (5) Outputs.Design/methodology/approachThe research method is based on qualitative and quantitative methods; a survey study is applied and the comparative results are evaluated with the path analysis method. The students in the Department of Architecture of two universities have been selected as the target audience. Case study 1 survey is applied to Altinbas University (AU) and Case study 2 survey is applied to Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV) students during the COVID-19 pandemic; ‘19-‘20 spring term, online education.FindingsAs a result, two-path analysis diagrams are produced for two universities, and a comparative analysis is presented to reveal the relationships of the selected ADC components.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to study how ADC can be developed in online education platforms.

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This study was conducted to investigate the market anomalies in the Borsa Istanbul Index (BIST). The scope of this study is to examine the Monday effects in BIST that are stock index of Turkey with an data set that contains daily stock prices between 02.01.2010 and 22.10.2014. The stock returns of the 289 companies were calculated according to the daily historical stock prices of companies. These returns were classified based on the sectors, and statistically analysed if the days of the week had any effects on Monday when the daily stock returns of Monday were fixed constant. The findings showed that the stock returns on Monday were affected by the other days. These effects were mostly negative, and varied according to the stocks and sectors. Thursday and Friday had the highest effect, whereas Tuesday had the least effect on the stocks. The results show that the stock market in Turkey has market anomaly, and BIST is not an efficient market.

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Introduction SARS-CoV-2 virus manifests itself with primary lung damage but also has intestinal involvement. In this study, we aimed to investigate the frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms (GIS) and the relationship of GIS with readmission to the hospital within 30 days in SARS-CoV-2 infected patients who were hospitalized in a specified pandemic hospital. Materials and Methods Symptomatic patients diagnosed with rapid antibody positivity with real-time polymerase chain reaction and typical thorax computed tomography findings were included in this retrospective cohort observational study. Demographic and clinical data were obtained from electronic medical records. Hospital-associated GIS were considered as experiencing at least one of the GIS such as gas, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation developing within72 h after hospital admission. Results The mean age of the patients was 58 ± 14.4 years and 60.7% were men. 82% of hospitalizations were a moderate and severe disease. 71.4% of patients without GIS had at least one of the GIS after hospitalization. As the severity of the disease increased, the frequency of the severity of gastrointestinal symptom increased. GIS bowel disorders were more prominent in patients with moderate and severe disease. Antibiotic and specific treatment (anti-Il-1, anti-Il-6) contributed to the occurrence of gastrointestinal symptom in SARS-CoV-2 inpatients. Conclusion According to our observations of the second wave of the pandemic, the presence, frequency, and severity of gastrointestinal symptom in inpatient is associated with severity of lung disease and increased readmission rate after discharge.

Earthquake damages are assessed based on a holistic approach using structural as well as non-structural factors to model earthquake damage distributions with Decision Tree Techniques, using the Answer Tree program and the damage data from recent major earthquakes in Turkey. The damage dataset consists of approximately 9,400 buildings that were surveyed to evaluate the factors affecting building damage after Erzincan [1992], Dinar [1995], and Kocaeli [1999] earthquakes. The earthquake damage is defined as the dependent variable, while earthquake magnitude (M), intensity (I) in the city, peak ground acceleration (PGA) in each city, epicenter distance (ED), building types (BT), number of storeys (NS), presence of soft storey (SS), building position (BP) on the site, and site conditions (SC) are independent variables in the proposed model. The damage level (DL) was classified with respect to red, yellow, and green codes. The main purpose was (1) to identify the factors controlling building damage during earthquakes; (b) to determine the most significant factor; (c) to evaluate the effects of different factors for different earthquakes; (d) to develop damage distribution models for different subgroups based on the Decision Tree Techniques.

Objectives In this study, we aimed to evaluate the intestinal and urinary microbiota diversity of obese, pre-diabetic, diabetic, and healthy subjects together with their food consumption frequency and investigate the effect on glucose metabolism. Methods DNA was isolated from stool and urinary samples of fifteen obese, fifteen prediabetics, fifteen type 2 diabetic, and fifteen lean participants by using the quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) method. The amounts of Bifidobacterium, Bacteroides, and Firmicutes were measured and food consumption frequency was answered by all participants through a questionnaire. Results The levels of Bifidobacterium in fecal microbiota were significantly higher in type 2 diabetic patients compared with lean (p=0.034), prediabetic (p=0.009), and obese participants (p=0.012). However, the levels of Bifidobacterium in urinary microbiota were decreased in obese, prediabetic, and type 2 diabetic subjects as controls (p=0.048; p=0.038; p=0.015 respectively). Additionally, Bacteroides/Firmicutes ratio decreased in type two diabetic patients compared with lean subjects and had a negative correlation with BMI in prediabetic subjects. Food consumption frequency illustrates that lean subjects have unhealthy eating habits. Conclusions Urinary microbiota could be considered in the future context of a potential biomarker in the progress of type 2 diabetes and obesity.