ABSTRACT This study was carried out to determine the technical and economic efficiency levels of laying hen farms and factors affecting the efficiency scores. For this purpose, a personal interview was carried out. Technical and economic data of 39 laying hen farms consisting their inputs and outputs over the period 2013-2015 was formed the material of this study. Efficiency levels were estimated by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Mean technical efficiency score of the enterprises were determined as 98.6%. Also 48.7% of the enterprises were determined fully technical efficient. On the other hand, mean economic efficiency of the enterprises was determined as 88.8%, while only 17.9% of the enterprises were fully economic efficient. In order to determine the factors affecting efficiency scores, Tobit regression analysis was performed. According to the analysis results, chick mortality rate, hen mortality rate and feed conversion ratio had negative effects on technical efficiency scores, while education level of the farmer and capacity utilization ratio had positive effects. Egg cost, chick mortality rate, feed conversion rate and production length had negative effect while egg yield had positive effect on economic efficiency. As a result, enterprises would increase their technical and economic efficiency scores by decreasing the mortality rate, feed conversion rate, production length. Furthermore, increasing capacity utilization ratio, education level of the owner and egg yield/hen would help to increase efficiency levels of the farms.

The aim of this study was to compare the patella bone volume of sedentary men with that of elite male sportspeople, including judoka, cyclists, weightlifters, and taekwondo athletes who were members of Turkish National Professional Teams. All subjects had no history or clinical signs of an orthopaedic disorder such as osteoarthritis or acromegaly. The right and left knees of all groups were placed side by side in a supine position and were scanned by high resolution imaging with multidetector computed tomography. The differences between the volume of right and left patellae of sedentary men, judoka, cyclists, weightlifters, and taekwondo athletes were statistically significant. The average left patella of a professional cyclist and the average right patella volume of a sedentary man were maximum and minimum, respectively. The results demonstrated that the patella volume of cyclists was significantly larger. According to the literature, patella bone volume was associated with a reduced rate of annual patella cartilage volume loss, so cycling early in life may prevent patella cartilage loss in the future.

El objetivo de este estudio fue comparar el volumen de la patela en hombres sedentarios con la patela de deportistas de elite, incluyendo judokas, ciclistas, levantadores de pesas y atletas de taekwondo, miembros de equipos profesionales nacionales turcos. Los sujetos del estudio no tenían antecedentes o signos clínicos de una enfermedad ortopédica como la osteoartritis. Las rodillas derecha e izquierda de los individuos de todos los grupos se colocaron una al lado de otra, en posición supina y fueron escaneadas por tomografía computarizada multidetector de alta resolución. Las diferencias entre el volumen de la patela derecha e izquierda de los hombres sedentarios, atletas judokas, ciclistas, levantadores de pesas y atletas de taekwondo fueron estadísticamente significativas. El volumen promedio de la patela izquierda de un ciclista profesional y el volumen promedio de la patela derecha de un hombre sedentario fueron de máximo y mínimo, respectivamente. Los resultados demostraron que el volumen de la patela de ciclistas fue significativamente mayor. De acuerdo a la literatura, el volumen del hueso de la patela fue asociado con una pérdida anual de volumen del cartílago, razón por la cual el ciclismo en una edad temprana puede prevenir la pérdida de cartílago de la patela en el futuro.