Research capacity and training needs for non-communicable diseases in the public health arena in Turkey

Background The aim of this study is to define the research capacity and training needs for professionals working on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the public health arena in Turkey. Methods This study was part of a comparative cross-national research capacity-building project taking place across Turkey and the Mediterranean Middle East (RESCAP-Med, funded by the EU). Identification of research capacity and training needs took place in three stages. The first stage involved mapping health institutions engaged in NCD research, based on a comprehensive literature review. The second stage entailed in-depth interviews with key informants (KIs) with an overview of research capacity in public health and the training needs of their staff. The third stage required interviewing junior researchers, identified by KIs in stage two, to evaluate their perceptions of their own training needs. The approach we have taken was based upon a method devised by Hennessy&#38;Hicks. In total, 55 junior researchers identified by 10 KIs were invited to participate, of whom 46 researchers agreed to take part (84%). The specific disciplines in public health identified in advance by RESCAP-MED for training were: advanced epidemiology, health economics, environmental health, medical sociology-anthropology, and health policy. Results The initial literature review showed considerable research on NCDs, but concentrated in a few areas of NCD research. The main problems listed by KIs were inadequate opportunities for specialization due to heavy teaching workloads, the lack of incentives to pursue research, a lack of financial resources even when interest existed, and insufficient institutional mechanisms for dialogue between policy makers and researchers over national research priorities. Among junior researchers, there was widespread competence in basic epidemiological skills, but an awareness of gaps in knowledge of more advanced epidemiological skills, and the opportunities to acquire these skills were lacking. Self-assessed competencies in each of the four other disciplines considered revealed greater training needs, especially regarding familiarity with the qualitative research skills for medical anthropology/sociology. Conclusions In Turkey there are considerable strengths to build upon. But a combination of institutional disincentives for research, and the lack of opportunities for the rising generation of researchers to acquire advanced training skills.</p

The Indirect Effects of Servant Leadership Behavior on Organizational Citizenship Behavior and Job Performance: Organizational Justice as a Mediator

The relationship between leader and followers plays a vital role, particularly in educational institutions where a keen understanding of human character and high level of social interaction ought to be facilitated. For this reason, in stark contrast to contemporary leaders who see people only as units of production or expendable resources in a profit and loss statement, servant leadership focuses on meeting the needs of followers, making them reach their maximum potential and so perform optimally in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives. This study examines the effects of servant leadership behaviors of private college principals on teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior and job performance. Using 300 respondents from the private education institutes in Turkey, servant leadership behavior is examined for its indirect effects on organizational citizenship behavior and job performance by its impact on organizational justice. Organizational justice acts as a mediator between the variables in question. All the results are in support of the studied mediation effects. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed

Tissue Expression of ETS-Related Gene in Gastric Carcinomas

INTRODUCTION: The ETS-related gene (ERG) encodes a member of the erythroblast transformation-specific (ETS) transcription factor family that has been implicated in both tumor invasion and neovascularization. In this retrospective study, we have aimed to investigate the clinical significance of ERG tissue expressions in gastric cancer. METHODS: We examined the expression of ERG protein by immunohistochemical staining in tissue specimens harvested from 172 primary gastric cancer cases. RESULTS: ERG was expressed in normal vascular endothelium. ERG staining was defined as positive in 9.9 % (17 /172) of gastric cancer cases. According to clinicopathological characteristics, statistically significant differences were not observed between ERG expression and tumor invasion, lymph node and distant metastases, increased tumor stage, histological lymphatic and neural invasion. There were no significant differences in age, gender, or histopathological grading as for ERG expression. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: ERT expression in gastric cancers is not correlated with histological prognostic indicators

Single dose of secnidazole treatment against naturally occuring Giardia duodenalis infection in Sakiz lambs

ABSTRACT Objective. The purposes of this study were to determine whether secnidazole administered at a single dose of 10 mg/kg, orally, lessens or eliminates Giardia cyst shedding, and to validate the benefit of secnidazole treatment on clinical signs and faecal consistency in lambs naturally infected with Giardia duodenalis. Materials and methods. To this extent weaned 12 weeks of age lambs were selected and randomly assigned into two groups based on placebo (group C, n=7 untreated control group) or treatment (group S, n=10 lambs treated with a single dose of secnidazole at 10 mg/kg). Results. On days 0 and 10, before and after treatment, respectively, reduction in cyst excretion was determined. The faecal consistency and general health were recorded at each sampling day. Conclusions. During the study there was a high (99.98%) reduction in cyst excretion in the secnidazol treatment group compared to the positive control group on day 10, resulting in a significant (p<0.001) reduction, making secnidazole highly effective treatment option

Fabrication and optimization of 3D printed gelatin methacryloyl microneedle arrays based on vat photopolymerization

Microneedles (MNs) are micrometer-sized arrays that can penetrate the skin in a minimally invasive manner; these devices offer tremendous potential for the transdermal delivery of therapeutic molecules. Although there are many conventional techniques for manufacturing MNs, most of them are complicated and can only fabricate MNs with specific geometries, which restricts the ability to adjust the performance of the MNs. Herein, we present the fabrication of gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) MN arrays using the vat photopolymerization 3D printing technique. This technique allows for the fabrication of high-resolution and smooth surface MNs with desired geometries. The existence of methacryloyl groups bonded to the GelMA was verified by 1H NMR and FTIR analysis. To examine the effects of varying needle heights (1000, 750, and 500 µm) and exposure times (30, 50, and 70 s) on GelMA MNs, the height, tip radius, and angle of the needles were measured; their morphological and mechanical properties were also characterized. It was observed that as the exposure time increased, the height of the MNs increased; moreover, sharper tips were obtained and tip angles decreased. In addition, GelMA MNs exhibited good mechanical performance with no breakage up to 0.3 mm displacement. These results indicate that 3D printed GelMA MNs have great potential for transdermal delivery of various therapeutics

Assessment of the requisites of microbiology based infectious disease training under the pressure of consultation needs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Training of infectious disease (ID) specialists is structured on classical clinical microbiology training in Turkey and ID specialists work as clinical microbiologists at the same time. Hence, this study aimed to determine the clinical skills and knowledge required by clinical microbiologists.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional study was carried out between June 1, 2010 and September 15, 2010 in 32 ID departments in Turkey. Only patients hospitalized and followed up in the ID departments between January-June 2010 who required consultation with other disciplines were included.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 605 patients undergoing 1343 consultations were included, with pulmonology, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, dermatology, haematology, and endocrinology being the most frequent consultation specialties. The consultation patterns were quite similar and were not affected by either the nature of infections or the critical clinical status of ID patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of our study show that certain internal medicine subdisciplines such as pulmonology, neurology and dermatology appear to be the principal clinical requisites in the training of ID specialists, rather than internal medicine as a whole.</p

Ectopic prostate presenting as a mass in bladder

A 24-year-old man presented with dysuria and voiding frequency. Cystoscopy revealed a smooth surfaced nodular mass in the trigonal region. Transurethral insisional biopsy of the mass was done. Histopathological and immunohistochemical examination revealed benign prostatic tissue situated ectopically

Ecstasy Intake Related Coagulopathy

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), substance known as "Ecstasy" among the people and used due to entertainment, euphoric and energy booster effect, is one of the famous synthetic stimulants.&nbsp; 22-year-old man was found as unconscious in the early morning. According to the expressions of his family and friends, it was learned that he drank alcohol until late in the previous evening and took ecstasy besides this before he died. It was reported that he was taken to intensive care unit with temperature of 41oC and death occurred 12 hours later. At autopsy in external examination, petechial and purpuric hemorrhages in purple and red color were detected on body. In internal examination, petechial hemorrhages on the surface of the heart and lungs, subendocardial hemorrhage in the heart, hemorrhage on the mucosal surface of the stomach were seen. In the toxicological analyses of the blood, Paracetamol (4870 ng/ml), MDMA (847 ng/ml), MDA (94,2 ng/ml), Lidocaine (23 ng/ml), Pantoprazole (10,5 ng/ml), Midazolam (1,83 ng/ml) were detected. The death occurred due to coagulopathy related MDMA intoxication. Here, we present a case of autopsy, clinical findings and histopathologic findings, laboratory results in medicolegal literature

C-Erb-b2 Oncogene Expression in Intraductal Proliferative Lesions of the Breast

The ductal intraepithelial neoplasia (DIN) classification which proposes new approaches to the diagnosis, terminology and differential diagnosis of intraductal proliferative lesions of the breast was applied to a series of female patients comprising C-erbB2 oncogene expression which may serve as an adjunct to the morphology by immunohistochemistry. The study was performed using the data of 94 patients. There was no difficulty encountered in the diagnosis of intraductal hyperplasia (IDH). In patients with Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia (AIDH), the diagnosis could be made by using the 2-mm rule of the DIN classification in patients who exhibited cytologic and structural characteristics of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) alone or in conjunction with classical IDH patterns. However, in lesions that mimicked classical IDH patterns despite displaying cytological features of in situ carcinomas, the experience and view point of the pathologist played a more prominent role. When the DIN classification criteria were applied to grade DCIS lesions, although the system was found to be practical, it did not provide adequate differentiation in intermediate grade (grade II-DIN 2) patients and further improvement was considered desirable. Fourty-five cases (47.8%) IDH, 19 (20.2%) AIDH, and 30 (31.9%) were DCIS. There were statistically significant differences in the levels of c-erbB2 oncogene expression between IDH, AIDH and DCIS lesions (p<0.001). In DCISs, grade, cell size, pleomorphic nuclear atypia showed statistically significant associations with c-erbB2 oncogene expression. These results suggest that c-erbB2 oncogene expression is a valuable marker in the differential diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of patients with intraductal proliferative lesions. (C) 2012 Association of Basic Medical Sciences of FBIH. All rights reserve