Retrospective analysis of total direct medical costs associated with hepatitis B patients with oral antiviral versus pegylated interferon therapy in Turkey

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108669/1/jvh12206.pd

The Behavior of Soluble Salt in Sharkey Clay

Soluble salt problems do exist and are significant in Arkansas. Studies have been conducted on Crowley silt loam (Typic Albaqualfs) which have established the behavior of soluble salt in that soil. The major objective of this study was to quantify the behavior of soluble salt in a second important Mississippi River Delta soil - the Sharkey (Vertic Haplaquepts). To this end, estimation of the downward redistribution of salt and the estimation of various components of the water balance for this soil served as specific objectives. Field studies were designed to monitor the movement of salt in the Sharkey soil and to characterize selected components of the water balance. In total, three tentative conclusions may be drawn from the data. First, the infiltration for the Sharkey soil was approximately three times that of the Crowley silt loam. The average value was 29 cm for the rice season. Second, levee seepage, while significant for small plots, was shown to be small for production-sized fields. Levee seepage remained relatively constant throughout the season and averaged 0.025 nvfym/d. And third, downward redistribution of salt was large and appeared to follow a pattern where a peak occurred at the surface and, possibly, at the lower soil depths

Comparative morphological, anatomical, ecological and chemical studies on endemic Satureja parnassica subsp. sipylea from Turkey

Satureja. parnassica Heldr.et Sart. subsp. sipylea P.H. Davis is a subspecies endemic to Turkey. The anatomical, morphological, ecological and chemical features of S. parnassica subsp. sipylea have been investigated. Plant samples were collected from different regions in Turkey. The morphological features of various organs of the plant such as leaf and flower are described in detail. In anatomical studies, transverse sections of the plant stem and leaf have been examined and supported by illustration and photographs. Ecological studies provide information about the physical and chemical structure of soil types in Spil Mountain and Marmara Island. The chemical composition of the essential oil of aerial parts of the plant was examined

Health care resource utilization and costs of California Medicaid patients with schizophrenia treated with paliperidone palmitate once monthly or atypical oral antipsychotic treatment

Objective: To compare all-cause health care utilization and costs between patients with schizophrenia treated with once monthly paliperidone palmitate (PP1M; Invega Sustenna1) and atypical oral antipsychotic therapy (OAT). Methods: This was a retrospective claims-based analysis among adult California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) patients with schizophrenia having 2 claims for PP1M or OAT from 1 July 2009 to 31 December 2013 and continuous health plan enrollment for 1 year pre- and post-index date (PP1M or OAT initiation date). Baseline characteristics were reported descriptively. Propensity score matching with a 1:1 greedy match method was used to create two matched cohorts. Treatment patterns, all-cause health care utilization, and costs for the 12 month follow-up period were compared between the two matched cohorts. Results: Two well matched cohorts of 722 patients were produced with similar baseline characteristics. During the 12 month follow-up period, PP1M patients were significantly less likely to discontinue treatment (30.6% vs. 39.5%, p Conclusions: Patients with schizophrenia treated with PP1M had significantly fewer inpatient hospitalizations and associated costs with no significant difference in the total costs between the two cohorts. This study is subject to limitations associated with claims data such as miscoding, inability to examine clinical severity, etc

Effect of a dietary essential oil mixture on performance of laying hens in the summer season

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplements of either an essential oil mixture (EOM) or a mannan oligosaccharide (MOS) as alternatives to an antibiotic feed additive (avilamycin) for layers kept under hot summer conditions. Four hundred and eighty 54-week old Nick-Brown hens were assigned to four dietary treatments. Each treatment consisted of four replications of 10 cages (three hens per cage). The treatment groups were: 1) Control: Basal diet without additive; 2) Basal diet plus antibiotic (10 mg avilamycin/kg feed); 3) Basal diet plus 1 g MOS/kg feed; 4) Basal diet plus 24 mg EOM/kg feed. Performance of laying hens was affected by dietary treatments. Dietary supplementation of EOM and MOS significantly increased egg production compared with control and antibiotic groups. There were no significant differences in feed consumption between treatments. The EOM significantly improved feed conversion ratio above that of the control group. Egg weights were significantly different between treatments. Laying hens consuming MOS produced significantly lower egg weights than the other groups, while egg weights in the EOM, antibiotic and control groups did not differ significantly. Cracked-broken egg rate was decreased by dietary addition of EOM, MOS and antibiotic compared with the control. Number of deaths among hens was significantly affected by dietary treatments with the number of deaths in the MOS treatment being significantly lower than in the other treatments. The performance of laying hens during the summer season could be maintained with inclusions of EOM and MOS in the diet. Keywords: Essential oils, mannan oligosaccharide, antibiotic, egg production, laying hen, summer seasonSouth African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 36 (4) 2006: pp. 215-22

The Behavior of Soluble Salt in Sharkey Clay- II

Soluble salts have been shown to accumulate in Arkansas soils in sufficient quantities to impair crop plant growth. The major objective of this study was to describe the behavior of soluble chloride salt over long time periods in Sharkey clay - a major Mississippi Delta soil. Prior to flooding rice, leaching of chloride in response to rainfall was observed. The inclusion of a sandy subsoil layer reduced this effect presumably by limiting downward movement of water under unsaturated conditions. No lateral movement of the chloride salt was found during the period prior to flooding. Removal of soluble chloride salts from the top 100 cm of Sharkey soil was complete in a 1-2 year period depending on weather conditions. In a year where the rice cropping season was followed by a wet winter, losses were smaller than in a year where the rice cropping season was followed by a drier winter. These results suggested that removal of soluble salts via leaching in this soil was more efficient under less saturated soil conditions

Analysis of the volatile components of five Turkish Rhododendron species by headspace solid-phase microextraction and GC-MS (HS-SPME-GC-MS)

Volatile constituents of various solvent extracts (n-hexane, CH2Cl2, H2O) of 15 different organs (leaves, flowers, fruits) of five Rhododendron species (Ericaceae) growing in Turkey were trapped with headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) technique and analyzed by GC-MS. A total of 200 compounds were detected and identified from organic extracts, while the water extracts contained only traces of few volatiles. The CH2Cl2 extract of the R. luteum flowers was found to exhibit the most diverse composition: 34 compounds were identified, with benzyl alcohol (16.6%), limonene (14.6%) and p-cymene (8.4%) being the major compounds. The CH2Cl2-solubles of R. x sochadzeae leaves contained only phenyl ethyl alcohol. This study indicated appreciable intra-specific variations in volatile compositions within the genus. Different anatomical parts also showed altered volatile profiles. This is the first application of HS-SPME-GC-MS on the volatiles of Rhododendron species