Pemantauan Senyawa Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (Ddt) dan Turunannya di Daerah Cianjur, Jawa Barat

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) merupakan senyawa organik yang relatif bertahan lama di lingkungan, sulit terdegradasi melalui proses kimia, biologi, dan fotolisis serta sukar larut di dalam air tetapi cenderung larut dalam lemak. Oleh karena sifatnya ini, POPs cenderung bersifat akumulatif dan bertahan di lingkungan. Selain itu, sen­yawa ini juga bersifat semivolatil sehingga dapat berada dalam fase uap ataupun terserap di dalam partikel debu, sehingga POPs dapat menempuh jarak yang jauh di udara (long-range air transport) sebelum akhirnya terdepo­sisi di bumi. Dari beberapa bentuk senyawa POPs, senyawa insektisida organoklorin yang paling bertahan lama dan mempunyai sifat bioakumulasi, diantaranya adalah Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane ( DDT ). Pemantauan kualitas lingkungan akibat pencemaran kelompok senyawa POPs, termasuk senyawa DDT dan turunannya telah dilakukan didaerah holtikultura Cianjur. Sampel diambil di beberapa lokasi yaitu PLTA Cijedil, Desa Cibeureum, Desa Sukatani, Agropolitan, dan Desa Sindang Jaya. Matriks yang diambil adalah air, sedimen sungai, dan tanah pertanian/perkebunan. Sampling air dan sedimen sungai dilakukan dengan metode sesaat sedangkan untuk tanah, menggunakan metode komposit tempat. Pemantauan ini mempunyai tujuan untuk menginventarisir jenis dan kon­sentrasi residu senyawa POPs yang terdapat di lingkungan terutama DDT dan turunannya. Isomer DDT yang paling banyak terbentuk di lingkungan adalah p,p\u27-DDT ( 80 % ) dan o,p\u27-DDT ( 20 % ). Senyawa POPs diekstrak dengan menggunakan pelarut organik, kemudian di clean-up dan dianalisis dengan GCMS menggunakan kolom kapiler non polar. Pada pemantauan tahun 2011, senyawa p,p\u27-DDT tidak terdeteksi dalam sampel sedimen, tetapi pada tahun 2012, ditemukan sekitar 3.7 ng/g dalam sedimen Sungai Cibeureum dekat PLTA Cijedil, Cugenang -Jawa Barat dan meningkat sebesar 6.95 ng/g pada tahun 2012 di lokasi yang sama. Masih pada tahun 2011, p,p\u27-DDT dan p,p\u27-DDE ditemukan tertinggi di tanah perkebunan Desa Sindang Jaya, Cipanas – Jawa Barat sebesar 446 ng/g, dan 184 ng/g, Tahun 2012 dan 2013 DDT dan turunannya masih terdeteksi namun konsentrasi cenderung menurun. Sementara itu pada sampel air tidak ditemukan senyawa DDT dan turunanny

Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with sustained and switching treatments using biological and targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs: A multicenter, observational cross-sectional study for rheumatoid arthritis

Introduction Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease with different disease activity grades. Several registries have been designed to determine the appropriate regimens of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs to obtain sustained clinical remission. We examined epidemiological and clinical characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis patients using a clinical registry database (BioSTaR) and analyzed the differences in patients with sustained and switched therapies. Methods A multicenter, observational cross-sectional study for rheumatoid arthritis was performed between February 2019 and September 2020 using the BioStaR-RA registry. Demographic and clinical characteristics were prospectively recorded into a specifically designed electronic database. The patients were divided into three groups due to the heterogeneity of the study cohort. Patients were grouped as Group I (Initial; within the first 6 months of treatment with biological/targeted synthetic drugs), Group ST (Sustained Treatment; any first drug lasting for at least 6 months without any change), and Group S (Switch; any switching to another drug). Comparative analysis was performed between sustained treatment (Group ST) and drug switching (Group S) groups. Results The study included a total of 565 patients. The mean age was 53.7 +/- 12.8 years, and the majority were female (80.4%). There were 104, 267, and 194 patients in Groups I, ST, and S, respectively. Erosive arthritis and hematological extra-articular involvement were more frequently detected in Group S than Group ST (p = 0.009 and p = 0.001). The patients in Group S had significantly higher disease activity scores (DAS28-CRP, CDAI, and SDAI) (p = 0.025, p = 0.010, and p = 0.003). There were significantly more patients with moderate disease activity in Group S (p < 0.05). Conclusions The groups with sustained treatment and switching included patients with different disease activity status, although higher disease activity was determined in switchers. Overall, moderate disease activity and remission were the most common disease activity levels. Lower disease activity scores, lower hematologic manifestations, better functional status, and lesser radiographic damage are associated with sustained treatment.Turkish Medicine and Medical Devices Agency ; Ankara Numune Egitim ve Arastirma Hastanes

Five-Years Tigecycline Experience an Analysis of Real-Life Data

Aim: Tigecycline has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal infections, skin and soft tissue infections and community-acquired pneumonia. In our study, we examined the efficacy of tigecycline in clinical practice and reported real life data from our hospital over a period of five years. Methods: The study was conducted between 2008 and 2013 on patients who received tigecycline for longer than 48 hours in Ankara Training and Research Hospital. Clinical success was defined as clinical recovery and microbiological cure in patients who used tigecycline. Any reason for discontinuation of tigecycline treatment was considered a clinical failure. Results: In our hospital, 320 patients were administered tigecycline between 2008 and 2013. Tigecycline was mainly used for pneumonia and skin and soft tissue infections. Tigecycline was used as monotherapy in 174 patients (54.1%). The most frequently isolated agent in tigecycline-treated patients was Acinetobacter baumannii (43.4%) followed by Enterococcus (6.9%). A change in treatment was not considered necessary in 243 (75.9%) patients who received tigecycline, while it was changed in 77 patients (24.1%). Conclusion: In conclusion, the use of tigecycline can be an effective treatment choice, either as monotherapy or as a combination antibiotic therapy

Hazırlık okullarında görev yapan İngilizce okutmanlarının kurumsal sosyalleşmelerinin yordayıcıları..

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the socialization of English instructors at preparatory schools of Turkish universities at organization, department and task levels, and various individual (academic degree, teaching experience, length of employment at current work place, job satisfaction, commitment, and self-efficacy) and organizational (type of university, training, work conditions, knowledge sharing) variables. A pilot study with 225 instructors from four universities was conducted to confirm the validity of Haueter, Macan, and Winter’s (2003) Newcomer Socialization Questionnaire (NSQ) adapted into Turkish. Although the results of exploratory factor analysis in the pilot study did not reveal supportive results for the structures in NSQ, results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated moderate fit for the structures in the scale. The main study was designed as a correlational study and the participants comprised of 737 English instructors working at 16 public and private universities selected from four cities in Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus via cluster sampling. In order to collect the data, an inventory consisting of three parts made up of self-developed and pre-developed scales was utilized. The first part consisted personal questions about education, age, gender and length of employment of the participants. The second part included questions about training and work conditions of the participants. The items related to training and work conditions were developed by the researchers. The third and final part of the inventory consisted of five separate scales for measuring both the predicted and predictor variables. Turkish adaptation of three-dimensional Organizational Socialization Scale, which was self-developed, and the Turkish version of three-dimensional Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale developed and validated by Çapa, Çakıroğlu, and Sarıkaya,(2005), three-dimensional Organizational Commitment Scale developed and validated by Wasti (1997), Job Satisfaction and Knowledge Sharing scales developed by Kondakçı and Haser (2011), all of which were pre-developed were utilized to measure the predictors of organizational socialization. Both descriptive and inferential statistics techniques were used for the data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis for the self-developed Organizational Socialization Scale, and confirmatory factor analyses for the pre-developed Teachers’ Efficacy Scale, Organizational Commitment Scale, Job Satisfaction Scale and Knowledge Sharing Scale were conducted within the scope of this study. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses was carried out in order to investigate the relationship between organizational socialization and its predictors. Descriptive, inferential and multiple regression statistical analyses were performed by the software PASW Statistics 18 and the confirmatory factor analysis was performed by the software AMOS 18. The results of the main study revealed that socialization of English instructors to the organization, department, and task are significantly predicted by several organizational and individual variables. Among organizational variables knowledge sharing and training are the most significant ones; and among individual variables, job satisfaction, self-efficacy for instructional strategies, and affective commitment are the most significant ones. In this respect, the practitioners in the field should provide necessary conditions so as to promote and improve knowledge sharing, job satisfaction, appropriate training in the work place, as well as offering opportunities for instructors to improve their self-efficacy as a teacher and satisfaction with the job, which can lead to increase in affective commitment.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra

Predictors of Organizational Socialization of Instructors in Higher Education

This study aims to investigate the relationship between organizational socialization and various organizational (type of university, training, work conditions, knowledge sharing) and individual (academic degree, teaching experience, length of employment at current work place, job satisfaction, commitment, self-efficacy) level factors, both factors taken together focusing on the content, context and process dimensions of socialization. For this aim, data from 737 public and private university English language instructors were collected with an inventory consisting of three parts made up of self-developed and pre-developed scales. Taking each dimension of organizational socialization as a criterion variable, three sets of predictors were defined for three separate hierarchical regression analyses. The results revealed that socialization of instructors to the organization, department, and task are significantly predicted by several organizational and individual variables. Knowledge sharing and training are the strongest organizational level predictors while job satisfaction, self efficacy for instructional strategies, and affective commitment are the strongest individual level predictors. The results suggest higher education administrators adapt organizational and individual level managerial strategies to facilitate organizational, department and task socialization in higher education organizations