How An Emergency Can Effect Urological Emergencies: COVID-19

Objective:Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has caused many changes in the health services since its inception. The change in the functioning of the emergency services and the decrease in admissions have also changed the form of consultations requested from the urology clinic. This study aims to reveal how the consultations requested from the urology clinic of a large hospital were affected during the COVID-19 period.Materials and Methods:In our study, one year before and after March 10, 2020, was divided into two groups as “pre-covid” and “covid era”. The gender, age, reason for consultation, result, date and time, hospitalization status of the patients were examined.Results:A total of 2018 consultations, 1242 in the pre-COVID period and 776 during the COVID period, were analyzed in the study. Although renal colic was the most common reason for consultation in both periods, its number and rate decreased significantly during the COVID period [384 (30.9%) vs. 165 (21.3%), p≤0.0001]. Proportionally, more patients were hospitalized during the COVID period [196 (15.8%) vs. 161 (20.7%), p=0.02]. In both periods, the most common reason for hospitalization was hematuria, but the difference was not statistically significant [26 (29.5%) vs. 20 (27.8%), p=0.261].Conclusion:COVID-19 has turned all health parameters upside down and has been one of the biggest factors affecting public health since the day it started. While the density and form of consultation requested from the urology clinic changed during the pandemic period, the hospitalization rates increased, so urology clinics should adapt accordingly for possible pandemic waves or epidemics in the future

Europe's dependence to Russian Federation in terms of energy supply security

Her geçen gün küresel enerji tüketimi hızla artmaktadır. Enerji kaynaklarının tükenmeye başlamasıyla birlikte yetersiz enerji kaynağı rezervlerine sahip olan ekonomiler enerji ihtiyaçlarını karşılayabilmek amacıyla kaynaklar üzerinde hâkimiyet mücadeleleri ve enerji ithalatına yönelmektedirler. Ekonomilerin enerji ithalatına bağımlı hale gelmesine neden olan enerji kaynakları ithalatına yönelim, enerji güvenliğini son derece olumsuz etkileyen bir durum olarak ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu bağlamda Avrupa Birliği ve kıta ülkeleri, her geçen gün enerji kaynaklarını diplomatik yaptırım aracı olarak kullanan Rusya Federasyonu'na başta doğal gaz olmak üzere, enerji ithalatına bağımlı hale gelmeye başlamışlardır. Küresel enerji süper gücü olabilmek hedefi doğrultusunda politikalarını belirleyen ve ülke ekonomisi enerji kaynaklarının ihracatından sağlanan gelirlerle büyüyen Rusya Federasyonu, bölge üzerinde, ulusal güvenliğini ve çıkarlarını korumayı amaçlarken, aynı zamanda enerji ihracatının devamlılığının sağlanabilmesi yönünde politikalar belirlemektedir. Bu nedenle, en fazla enerji kaynağı ihracatını gerçekleştirdiği Avrupa kıtası ülkeleriyle işbirliği içerisinde hareket etmeye çalışmakta, aynı zamanda çıkar bölgesi olan yakın çevresinde etkisini kaybetmemek yönünde politikalar izlemektedir. Bu bağlamda, ulusal çıkarların korunması amacıyla Rusya Federasyonu'nun diplomatik yaptırım aracı olarak kullandığı enerji kaynaklarının ve enerji ithalatı bağımlılığının Avrupa ülkelerinin ulusal güvenlikleriyle birlikte, enerji güvenliği üzerindeki olumsuz etkilerin açıklanması tezin amacını oluşturmaktadır. Avrupa ülkelerinin enerji güvenliğinde Rusya Federasyonu'nun politikalarının, boru hatlarının ve enerji şirketlerinin etkisi ve Avrupa ülkelerinin artan bağımlılığa karşılık geliştirdiği politikalar ayrıntılı olarak açıklanmıştır.Each passing day, global energy consumption is increasing rapidly. With shrinking energy sources, economies, which has insufficient energy reserves, are driven into struggles to dominate energy reserves and get obliged to import energy to meet their energy needs. Tendency towards the import of energy sources, which make economies dependent, is an unfavorable situation, which affects energy security negatively. In this scope, European Union and continental countries have begun to be dependent on Russian Federation, which use its energy sources as a diplomatic tool. Russian Federation, which determines its policies so as to be a super power of energy, and whose economy is growing with the income accumulating from the export of energy sources, is conducting policies to keep sustainability of energy export while also aiming to protect its national security and interests in the region. With this reason, while it is conducting policies not to lose its impact over its close neighborhood, where its interests lie, it is also trying to stay in cooperation with European continental countries, where most of its energy exports are transferred. In this scope, the explanation of the impacts of energy resources used as a diplomatic tool by the Russian Federation and the impact of energy import dependency on both national securities of European countries as well as on energy security constitute the main purpose of the thesis. The impact of Russian Federation's energy policies, of the pipelines and of energy companies as well as the policies developed by European countries as a remedy to their increasing dependency are examined in detail