EVALUATION OF THE HEALTHCARE TRANSFORMATION PROGRAMME IN TURKEY AS A STRATEGY FOR BETTER HEALTH

In November 2002 elections, when Justice and Development Party (AKP) came into power as a single party government, after several coalition governments in the country, it was the beginning of a new term for Turkey. In 2002, health indicators of Turkey was far behind of the OECD countries, patient satisfaction was 39.5%, often news about holding patients hostage by hospital administrations because of unpaid healthcare service bills was taking place on the media. Thus, there were several problems in terms of accessibility and efficiency of health services in Turkey (TURSTAT, 2003; OECD, 2003; WHO, 2012). Under this circumstance, AKP declared its agenda and urgent action plan for healthcare in 2002, and the reform programme in 2003, naming Healthcare Transformation Programme (HTP). And the programme has been implementing by the Ministry of Health since 2003. The programme aims revolutionary changes in Turkish healthcare system and most of these changes have been successfully implemented. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the HTP regarding components of the programme based on the reports of Turkish Ministry of Health and international institutions, mainly OECD. Firstly, objectives of the HTP will be explained with the comparison of healthcare system before 2003 and today, and then selected health indicators of the country in 2003 and 2013 will be handled for assessing the success of the programme

The potential for health economics to influence policies on tobacco use during pregnancy in low- and middle-income countries: A qualitative case study

Introduction: Tobacco control during pregnancy is a policy priority in high-income countries (HICs) because of the significant health and inequality consequences. However, little evidence exists on interventions to reduce tobacco use in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), especially for pregnant women. This study aimed to assess how health economics evidence, which is mainly produced in HICs, could be adopted for tobacco cessation policies for pregnant women in LMICs. Methods: A qualitative case study was conducted in an international public health organisation. The organisation was chosen due to its capacity to influence health policies around the world. Tobacco control experts working in the organisation were identified through purposeful sampling and snowballing. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 18 informants with relevant experience of countries from all of the regions covered by the organisation. Data were analysed using the framework method. Results: In practice, tobacco cessation during pregnancy was not viewed as a priority in LMICs despite international recognition of the issue. In LMICs, factors including the recorded country-specific prevalence of tobacco use during pregnancy, availability of healthcare resources and the characteristics of potential interventions all affected the use of health economics evidence for policy making. Conclusion: The scale of tobacco use among pregnant women might be greater than reported in LMICs. Health economics evidence produced in HICs has the potential to inform health policies in LMICs around tobacco cessation interventions if the country-specific circumstances are addressed. Economic evaluations of cessation interventions integrated into antenatal care with a household perspective would be especially relevant in LMICs

Small-x Dipole Evolution Beyond the Large-N_c Limit

We present a method to include colour-suppressed effects in the Mueller dipole picture. The model consistently includes saturation effects both in the evolution of dipoles and in the interactions of dipoles with a target in a frame-independent way. When implemented in a Monte Carlo simulation together with our previous model of energy--momentum conservation and a simple dipole description of initial state protons and virtual photons, the model is able to reproduce to a satisfactory degree both the gamma*-p cross sections as measured at HERA as well as the total p-p cross section all the way from ISR energies to the Tevatron and beyond

A Study of the Causes of Medical Errors: Isparta province sample/ Tıbbi Hata Nedenleri Üzerine Bir Araştırma: Isparta İli Örneği*

Tıbbi hataların türlerinin ve sebeplerinin tespiti, tıbbi hataların önlenmesinde birinci adımdır. Bu çalışmada da tıbbi hataların türleri ve sebeplerinin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Araştırma Isparta evrenini temsil ettiği düşünülen 500 kişi arasından tıbbi hataya uğradığını veya ailesinden bir ferdin tıbbi hataya uğradığını ifade eden 252 kişi ile yüz yüze görüşmeler yapılarak gerçekleştirilmiş olup, görüşmelerde açık uçlu sorulardan oluşan bir anket kullanılmıştır. Anketin oluşturulmasında ve elde edilen verilerin analizinde Health Quality Council of Alberta için, Northcott ve Northcott tarafından hazırlanarak Alberta (Kanada)’da uygulanmış bir anket olan “Alberta Patient Safety Survey 2004” esas alınmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda katılımcıların ifadelerine dayanarak, en sık tekrarlanan hata türünün ilaç hatası olduğu, katılımcılara göre yaşanan hataların birinci sebebinin hekimin ilgisizliği olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Tıbbi hataya maruz kaldığını veya ailesinden bir ferdin maruz kaldığını ifade eden katılımcıların %28.45'i tıbbi hataya maruz kaldığı görüşünü başka bir hekime danışarak edindiğini ifade etmişti

Elastic and quasi-elastic pppp and γ⋆p\gamma^\star p scattering in the Dipole Model

We have in earlier papers presented an extension of Mueller's dipole cascade model, which includes sub-leading effects from energy conservation and running coupling as well as colour suppressed saturation effects from pomeron loops via a ``dipole swing''. The model was applied to describe the total and diffractive cross sections in $pp$ and $\gamma^*p$ collisions, and also the elastic cross section in $pp$ scattering. In this paper we extend the model to describe the corresponding quasi-elastic cross sections in $\gamma^*p$, namely the exclusive production of vector mesons and deeply virtual compton scattering. Also for these reactions we find a good agrement with measured cross sections. In addition we obtain a reasonable description of the $t$-dependence of the elastic $pp$ and quasi-elastic $\gamma^\star p$ cross sections

Gate-tunable black phosphorus spin valve with nanosecond spin lifetimes

Two-dimensional materials offer new opportunities for both fundamental science and technological applications, by exploiting the electron spin. While graphene is very promising for spin communication due to its extraordinary electron mobility, the lack of a band gap restricts its prospects for semiconducting spin devices such as spin diodes and bipolar spin transistors. The recent emergence of 2D semiconductors could help overcome this basic challenge. In this letter we report the first important step towards making 2D semiconductor spin devices. We have fabricated a spin valve based on ultra-thin (5 nm) semiconducting black phosphorus (bP), and established fundamental spin properties of this spin channel material which supports all electrical spin injection, transport, precession and detection up to room temperature (RT). Inserting a few layers of boron nitride between the ferromagnetic electrodes and bP alleviates the notorious conductivity mismatch problem and allows efficient electrical spin injection into an n-type bP. In the non-local spin valve geometry we measure Hanle spin precession and observe spin relaxation times as high as 4 ns, with spin relaxation lengths exceeding 6 um. Our experimental results are in a very good agreement with first-principles calculations and demonstrate that Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation mechanism is dominant. We also demonstrate that spin transport in ultra-thin bP depends strongly on the charge carrier concentration, and can be manipulated by the electric field effect

Electronic Spin Transport in Dual-Gated Bilayer Graphene

The elimination of extrinsic sources of spin relaxation is key in realizing the exceptional intrinsic spin transport performance of graphene. Towards this, we study charge and spin transport in bilayer graphene-based spin valve devices fabricated in a new device architecture which allows us to make a comparative study by separately investigating the roles of substrate and polymer residues on spin relaxation. First, the comparison between spin valves fabricated on SiO2 and BN substrates suggests that substrate-related charged impurities, phonons and roughness do not limit the spin transport in current devices. Next, the observation of a 5-fold enhancement in spin relaxation time in the encapsulated device highlights the significance of polymer residues on spin relaxation. We observe a spin relaxation length of ~ 10 um in the encapsulated bilayer with a charge mobility of 24000 cm2/Vs. The carrier density dependence of spin relaxation time has two distinct regimes; n<4 x 1012 cm-2, where spin relaxation time decreases monotonically as carrier concentration increases, and n>4 x 1012 cm-2, where spin relaxation time exhibits a sudden increase. The sudden increase in the spin relaxation time with no corresponding signature in the charge transport suggests the presence of a magnetic resonance close to the charge neutrality point. We also demonstrate, for the first time, spin transport across bipolar p-n junctions in our dual-gated device architecture that fully integrates a sequence of encapsulated regions in its design. At low temperatures, strong suppression of the spin signal was observed while a transport gap was induced, which is interpreted as a novel manifestation of impedance mismatch within the spin channel

Energy dependence of the saturation scale and the charged multiplicity in pp and AA collisions

A natural framework to understand the energy dependence of bulk observables from lower energy experiments to the LHC is provided by the Color Glass Condensate, which leads to a "geometrical scaling" in terms of an energy dependent saturation scale Q_s. The measured charged multiplicity, however, seems to grow faster (~\sqrt{s}^0.3) in nucleus-nucleus collisions than it does for protons (~\sqrt{s}^0.2), violating the expectation from geometric scaling. We argue that this difference between pp and AA collisions can be understood from the effect of DGLAP evolution on the value of the saturation scale, and is consistent with gluon saturation observations at HERA.Comment: RevTeX, 8 pages, 4 figures. V2: modified discussion of fragmentation, published in EPJ

Nanowires of Lead-Free Solder Alloy SnCuAg

Ternary Sn88Ag5Cu7, Sn93Ag4Cu3, Sn58Ag18Cu24, Sn78Ag16Cu6, Sn90Ag4Cu6, Sn87Ag4Cu9 alloy nanowires were produced at various values of deposition potential by dc electrodeposition on highly ordered porous anodic alumina oxide (AAO) templates. During the deposition process some parameters, such as ion content, deposition time, pH, and temperature of the solution, were kept constant. The diameter and length of regular Sn93Ag4Cu3 nanowires electrodeposited at −1 V were determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to be approximately 200–250 nm and 7-8 μm, respectively. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results indicate that the melting onset temperature of Sn93Ag4Cu3 nanowires is about 204°C