Age and total and free prostate-specific antigen levels for predicting prostate volume in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia

Objectives: To investigate the predictive values of free prostate-specific antigen (fPSA), total PSA (tPSA) and age on the prostate volume.

Methods: The data of 2148 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms were analyzed retrospectively. The patients who had transrectal ultrasonography guided 10 core biopsies owing to the findings obtained on digital rectal examination and presence of high PSA levels (PSA?=?2.5–10?ng/dl), and proven to have BPH histopathologically were included in the study. Age, tPSA, fPSA and the prostate volumes (PV) of the patients were noted.

Results: One thousand patients that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The PV of the patients were significantly correlated with age, tPSA and fPSA (p?r?=?0.307, p?r?=?0.382, p?r?=?0.296, respectively). On linear regression model, fPSA was found as a stronger predictive for PV (AUC?=?0.75, p?p?p?=?0.013).

Conclusions: Although tPSA is an important prognostic factor for predicting PV, the predictive value of fPSA is higher. PV can easily be predicted by using age, and serum tPSA and fPSA levels.     

Comparison of the effectiveness of IPSS and VPSS without any help in LUTS patients: a prospective study

Aim: To compare the correlation of visual prostate symptom score (VPSS) and international prostate symptom score (IPSS). To investigate the effect of educational level and age in the responses to VPSS and IPSS.

Method: Three hundred and nine patients who gave consent and applied via LUTS to our institution were included in this study. They were requested to fill IPSS and VPSS. The patients were divided into two groups as middle-aged and elderly with a cutoff point of 65?years. They were divided into six groups based on educational level. SPSS was used for the statistical evaluation.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 61.5?±?8.9?years. The correlation was found between IPSS and VPSS (p?p?=?.332 and .138, respectively). No difference was found between the middle-aged and elderly groups in terms of the rates of inability to answer IPSS and VPSS (p?=?.177 and .681, respectively).

Conclusions: There is a correlation between VPSS and IPSS. VPSS can be used as an auxiliary or alternative tool instead of IPSS in evaluating LUTS; however, has no superiority to IPSS in elderly group. Currently, the best option to exclude bias in illiterate group is VPSS.     

Marriage among the Gypsies of Turkey

Despite the fact that Gypsies have always been traveling communities, it is difficult for them to preserve their own customs and traditions forever. In the light of studies and research about Gypsies so far, conclusions could be formed that the first and foremost maintaining factor is marriage that can be idealized and practiced differently among Gypsies around the world. This work introduces the image and practice of marriage of the Gypsies of Turkey. It has been found out that endogamy is especially very common among the Gypsies of Turkey since it is considered to be the only way of protecting their communal life. Within the general concept of the endogamic marriage, these types have been discussed under such headings as “purchasing,” “exchanging,” and “abducting.” Other issues which have been raised in the study, are polygamy and divorce which are also very common among the Turkish Gypsies. Finally, the significance of marriage for the families and having children as a result have been analyzed.     

Sustainable Development and Capabilities for the Polar Region

The paper develops a sustainable development framework for individual and collective capabilities in mixed subsistence and wage-based economies. We apply this framework to such regions of the Arctic and evaluate interactions and conflicts between two sectors of the mixed economy and between current and future generations of Arctic inhabitants. A recent Arctic Social Indicators Report published by the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR) Task Force recognizes the importance of the mixed economy in the Arctic and aims to integrate collective assets, as well as individual assets in order to understand the human development in the Arctic. Yet due to its concerns of comparability of social development and data availability across the whole Arctic region (of which some parts do not have the similar population structure), its proposed indicators are not capable of covering the social development of predominantly indigenous regions of the North. We emphasize the importance of tracking collective capabilities, as well as individual capabilities to sustain community development. In addition we suggest that environmental sustainability, which is ignored by the AHDR Task Force, has to be integrated with social development as environmental deterioration significantly influences the social well-being and cultural stability of traditional inhabitants of the Arctic. We critically review the proposed indicators of the AHDR Task Force and make supplementary and alternative suggestions.     

La réforme du droit du travail en Turquie: entre emprunts,transpositions et statu quo

Dans la lignée des travaux récents sur les idées «nomades», leur circulation et leur transposition, l'auteur montre comment les normes du travail consacrées par l'OIT et l'UE ont été introduites en Turquie et adaptées au contexte national. Il revient sur les raisons qui ont poussé les partenaires sociaux et la commission chargée de rédiger la nouvelle loi sur le travail de 2003 à partir de cette base et analyse l'issue du processus de réforme législative correspondant, notant que les normes internationales ont parfois été modifiées dans l'exercice, alors que certains éléments de l'ancien code du travail ont perduré, notamment le régime d'indemnisation du licenciement.     

Differential Peer Effects,Student Achievement,and Student Absenteeism: Evidence From a Large-Scale Randomized Experiment

Using data from a well-executed randomized experiment, I examine the effects of gender composition and peer achievement on high school students’ outcomes in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Results show that having a higher proportion of female peers in the classroom improves girls’ math test scores only in less-advanced courses. For male students, the estimated gender peer effects are positive but less precisely estimated. I also find no effect of average classroom achievement on female math test scores. Males, on the other hand, seem to benefit from a higher-achieving classroom. I propose mechanisms relating to lower gender stereotype influences and gender-specific attitudes toward competition as potential explanations for peer effects findings. Finally, having a higher proportion of female students in the classroom decreases student absenteeism among male students but has no impact on female attendance.     

A fuzzy approach to qualitative cross impact analysis

This paper proposes a fuzzy approach to qualitative cross impact analysis. Cross impact analysis is seeking to find both direct and indirect relationships of variables relying on experts’ decisions to structure and formalize judgmental forecasting. The knowledge is often uncertain or fuzzy when dealing with future events. In addition, experts prefer to use linguistic terms or fuzzy values in their predictions. Therefore, a qualitative cross impact analysis is represented in terms of fuzzy relationships. Four different approaches including crisp binary, crisp rated, fuzzy linguistic and fuzzy rated are applied to a specific case—the security appliances sector. The results are then compared depending on the variables’ characteristics. The fuzzy approaches reveal different results than the crisp ones. The fuzzy rated approach makes it possible to “infer in a wider perspective” from the results and pick out hidden variables. On the other hand, the results of the fuzzy linguistic approach help in deciding for variables where indecision is high in other approaches. Finally, in contrast to crisp approaches, the fuzzy approaches are more successful in representing uncertainty.     

The impact of conservative discourses in family policies, population politics, and gender rights in Poland and Turkey

This article uses childcare as a case study to test the impact of ideas that embody a traditional understanding of gender relations in relation to childcare. Conservative ideas regard increasing female labor market participation as a cause of decreasing fertility on the functioning of a set of general policies to increase fertility rates. It looks into the Polish and Turkish contexts for empirical evidence. The Polish context shows a highly institutionalized system of family policies in contrast to almost unessential institutions in Turkey. Formally, the labor market participation of women is much lower in Turkey than in Poland. Yet, given the size of the informal market in Turkey, women's labor participation is obviously higher than what appears in the statistics. Bearing in mind this divergence, the article suggests Poland and Turkey as two typologies for studying population politics in contexts where socially conservative ideas regarding gender remain paramount. We qualify ideas as conservative if they enforce a traditional understanding of gender relations in care-giving and underline women's role in the labor market as an element of declining fertility. In order to delineate ideational impact, this article looks into how ideas (a) supplant and (b) substitute formal institutions. Therefore, we argue that there are two mechanisms pertaining to the dominance of conservative conventions: conservative ideas may either supplant the institutional impact on family policies, or substitute them thanks to a superior reasoning which societies assign to them. Furthermore, conservative conventions prevail alongside women's customary unpaid work as care-givers regardless of the level of their formal workforce participation. We propose as our major findings for the literature of population politics that ideas, as ubiquitous belief systems, are more powerful than institutions since they provide what is perceived as legitimate, acceptable, and good for the societies under study. In the end, irrespective of the presence of institutions, socially conservative ideas prevail.     

Intersectionality in Gender Mainstreaming:Equity Organizing in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Historically, Turkey is home to multiple identities and cultures. In following with the critiques of Diversity Mainstreaming approach toward Gender Mainstreaming, this article argues that recognition of identities can be possible if an intersectional approach is adopted. To overcome the particular challenges of Gender Mainstreaming’s implementation in Turkey’s multicultural society, this article introduces a concept that supplements Gender Mainstreaming, called Equity Organizing, which further develops the views on intersectionality and equity that Diversity Mainstreaming proposes. It is different from Diversity Mainstreaming because it seeks to address the challenges to democracy in strong central and authoritarian leaning states. Equity Organizing is committed to the construction of progressive state policies for social justice through the realization of diverse identities.     

Mandatory occupational welfare: Severance pay as an unemployment compensation instrument

This study focuses on the conceptual and empirical development of severance pay (SP)/redundancy pay schemes established through centralized collective agreements (in Nordic countries) and legislation for unemployment compensation. It argues that these “mandatory” occupational welfare benefits have been neglected in social policy debates due to the ambiguity in their conceptualization, overemphasis on their cost implications, and the nonrecognition of their redistributive effects. The study offers quantitative indicators to analyse SPsapos; redistributive structure (coverage, generosity, and benefit equality) during the Global Recession in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, and Sweden. The findings demonstrate that SP schemes possess distinctive elements in Southern European, Continental European, Anglo-Saxon, and Nordic clusters. The indicators are also used to analyse the interplay between these schemes and unemployment insurance/assistance in these clusters.