Assessment of the reliability of the serbian version of the sickness impact profile questionnaire in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

© 2015, Serbia Medical Society. All rights reserved. SUMMARY Introduction Health-related quality of life (HRQL) of chronic patients has been researched as the ultimate goal of modern treatment of chronic diseases to improve patients’ quality of life. Objective The objective was to assess the reliability of the Serbian version of the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP) questionnaire on the sample of patients with chronic viral hepatitis. Methods The research covered 102 patients with chronic hepatitis (47 type B and 55 type C). The assessment of the reliability of the SIP questionnaire was performed by testing the internal consistency of the questions by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The factor analysis was used to assess whether the grouping of the questions within dimensions matches the distribution of the questions in the original English version of the questionnaire administered to U.S. patient population. Results The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the entire questionnaire is 0.925, 0.869 for the physical dimension, and 0.857 for the psychosocial dimension. After running a factor analysis of the psychosocial dimension, “emotional instability” was extracted as the key factor, confirming the results of previous research. Compared with the English version of the questionnaire, the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the Serbian version does not diverge significantly, whereas the factor analysis confirms the classification of the questionnaire into two dimensions. Conclusion Our study has shown that the Serbian version of the SIP questionnaire is a reliable tool for assessing the HRQL of patients with chronic hepatitis B and C before starting treatment

Intelligent dual curve-driven tool path optimization and virtual CMM inspection for sculptured surface CNC machining

This paper investigates the profitability of a dual‐curve driven surface finish tool path under the concept of optimizing crucial machining parameters such as toroidal end‐mill diameter, lead angle and tilt angle. Surface machining error as well as tool path time are treated as optimization objectives under a multi‐criteria sense, whilst a central composite design is conducted to obtain experimental outputs for examination and, finally, fit a full quadratic model considered as the fitness function for process optimization by means of a genetic algorithm. A benchmark sculptured surface given as a second‐order parametric equation was tested and simulated using a cutting‐edge manufacturing modeling software and best parameters recommended by the genetic algorithm were implemented for validation. Further assessment involves the virtual inspection to selected profile sections on the part. It was shown that the approach can produce dual‐curve driven tool trajectories capable of eliminating sharp scallop heights, maximizing machining strip widths as well as maintaining smoothness quality and machining efficiency

Risk Model for Integrated Management System

The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated risk management model for standardized management systems: ISO 9001:2015 for quality management, ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 for information security management, ISO 45001:2018 for Occupational Health and Safety Management, and ISO 22000:2005 for food safety management in order to enable organizations can manage their processes and associated risks versus requirements of each internal and external stakeholder through only one MS instead of several individual MSs defined and implemented in an isolated way according to a specific MSS and hence to decrease the number of resources employed and to enhance the organization performance

Recovery of dialysis patients with COVID-19 : health outcomes 3 months after diagnosis in ERACODA

Background. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related short-term mortality is high in dialysis patients, but longer-term outcomes are largely unknown. We therefore assessed patient recovery in a large cohort of dialysis patients 3 months after their COVID-19 diagnosis. Methods. We analyzed data on dialysis patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from 1 February 2020 to 31 March 2021 from the European Renal Association COVID-19 Database (ERACODA). The outcomes studied were patient survival, residence and functional and mental health status (estimated by their treating physician) 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis. Complete follow-up data were available for 854 surviving patients. Patient characteristics associated with recovery were analyzed using logistic regression. Results. In 2449 hemodialysis patients (mean ± SD age 67.5 ± 14.4 years, 62% male), survival probabilities at 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis were 90% for nonhospitalized patients (n = 1087), 73% for patients admitted to the hospital but not to an intensive care unit (ICU) (n = 1165) and 40% for those admitted to an ICU (n = 197). Patient survival hardly decreased between 28 days and 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis. At 3 months, 87% functioned at their pre-existent functional and 94% at their pre-existent mental level. Only few of the surviving patients were still admitted to the hospital (0.8-6.3%) or a nursing home (∼5%). A higher age and frailty score at presentation and ICU admission were associated with worse functional outcome. Conclusions. Mortality between 28 days and 3 months after COVID-19 diagnosis was low and the majority of patients who survived COVID-19 recovered to their pre-existent functional and mental health level at 3 months after diagnosis

Quality Improvement Using Taguchi’s Model: – A Casy Study from Serbia

The developed Taguchi’s model for the multiobjectiveprocess design could incorporate customers’specifications for several characteristics and could be used tooptimise various types of manufacturing processes. The goals ofthe model implementation areis is to find the optimal processparameter settings and to reduce the influence of noise factors, toensure the achievement of the specified product characteristicvalues and to reduce variations. The model is given in a form ofan hybrid intelligent system for the process design (optimisation,modelling and/or simulation), providing the possibility forlearning features (learning from the experimental or from thehistorical data)

Quality Improvement Using Taguchi’s Model: – A Casy Study from Serbia

The developed Taguchi’s model for the multiobjective process design could incorporate customers’ specifications for several characteristics and could be used to optimise various types of manufacturing processes. The goals of the model implementation areis is to find the optimal process parameter settings and to reduce the influence of noise factors, to ensure the achievement of the specified product characteristic values and to reduce variations. The model is given in a form of an hybrid intelligent system for the process design (optimisation, modelling and/or simulation), providing the possibility for learning features (learning from the experimental or from the historical data)

Towards the development of feature - based ontology for Inspection Planing System on CMM

The paper define the basic geometrical primitives as classes of Engineering Ontology in order to develop feature - based ontology for Inspection Planning System for CMM. The process of acquisition the properties of individuals and properties of classes is proposed, as one of the main components of Engineering Ontology suitable for implementation in the software for development the ontology - Protégé. The proposed method describes derived geometrical characteristics or characteristics that are measured on the mechanical part. The results indicate that further development of methodology for Engineering Ontology is justified in the field of production metrology and implementation in the appropriate software