The dual half-edge-a topological primal/dual data structure and construction operators for modelling and manipulating cell complexes

© 2016 by the authors. There is an increasing need for building models that permit interior navigation, e.g., for escape route analysis. This paper presents a non-manifold Computer-Aided Design (CAD) data structure, the dual half-edge based on the Poincaré duality that expresses both the geometric representations of individual rooms and their topological relationships. Volumes and faces are expressed as vertices and edges respectively in the dual space, permitting a model just based on the storage of primal and dual vertices and edges. Attributes may be attached to all of these entities permitting, for example, shortest path queries between specified rooms, or to the exterior. Storage costs are shown to be comparable to other non-manifold models, and construction with local Euler-type operators is demonstrated with two large university buildings. This is intended to enhance current developments in 3D Geographic Information Systems for interior and exterior city modelling

Treatment cost of metastatic colon cancer in Turkey

OBJECTIVES: Colon cancer is the third most common in the top cancer incidence list in Europe. In Europe 212,000 patients die every year due to colon cancer. In Turkey 120,000-130,000 new cancer patients are diagnosed every year, 7.1% of whom are diagnosed to have developed colon cancer. Metastases will occur in up to 50% of the patients who are newly diagnosed. Survival appears to be further prolonged to more than 20 months with new pharmaceuticals; however, these new pharmaceuticals increase the total cost of care. The aim of this study is to estimate the cost implications of new colon cancer treatment options for Turkey.METHODS: Gazi University Hospital treatment protocols for colon cancer treatment were used. Cost of FUFA (5 FU/LV), FOLFIRI, FOLFOX, bevacizumab/FUFA, bevacizumab/FOLFIRI, bevacizumab/FOLFOX, irinotecan and irinotecan/cetixumab protocols were calculated. The cost of combination of protocols were calculated depending on a Markov analysis. The exchange rate was US$1 for TL 1.5.RESULTS: Depending on the life expectancy the lowest total cost was established by FUVA (US$ 5,359). It was followed by FOLFIRI then FOLFOX and FOLFOX, US$14,144 and US$ 16,553, respectively. The lowest cost for each week of life expectancy was established by FUVA with US$ 98.CONCLUSIONS: Only FUFA, FOLFIRI followed by FOLFIX, FOLFIRI/bevacizumab then FOLFOX then cetuximab, FOLFOX/bevacizumab then irinotecan then cetuximab/irinotecan and FOLFIRI/bevacizumab then FOLFOX then cetuximab/irinotecan were under the cost effectiveness curve. In addition no treatments ICER was under the WHO`s threshold for Turkey, except FOLFIRI then FOLFOX compared with FUVA

Results of reference pricing and reimbursement discount rate schemes of Turkey

OBJECTIVES: General Directorate of Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacy (IEGM) is responsible for setting all prices for human medicinal products. The reference pricing system is used for setting these prices. Reference countries are reviewed annually and may be subject to certain alterations. There were 5 reference countries in 2009: Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Greece. The aim of this study is to show the distribution of reference countries which were used for reference pricing.METHODS: The price list of pharmaceuticals which was published by IEGM on 15.04.2011 was used for analysis. Distribution of reference countries and prices were evaluated.RESULTS: Prices of 6,251 generic and 3,703 original products were set according to the price list. 5,283 of generics and 3,306 of originals were in the positive list for reimbursement. Reference pricing was used for 2,352 generics and 2,281 originals. Prices of the remaining were set outside of reference pricing. 32 different countries were used for reference pricing. Italy was the most popular country for reference pricing. Even if it was not a reference country, Germany was used in some of the pharmaceuticals. The average reimbursement discount rate and price were 24.43% and 249 TL, respectively. There were no colerations between price and reimbursement discount rate, or reference country and reimbursement rate.CONCLUSION: It has been shown that Italy has the highest impact on the pricing of all pharmaceuticals in Turkey. Even if it was not a reference country, Germany showed to affect pharmaceuticals more than other countries which were also not used for reference pricing. Even if reimbursement discount rates are stated by the Social Security Institution (SGK), there are different discount rates for pharmaceuticals. The analysis stated that there were correlation between price, country and discount rates. This analysis is first for the literature. Further analysis is necessary in the light of price changes and newly launched pharmaceuticals

Geometric Modeling for Rapid Prototyping and Tool Fabrication

This paper describes the application of a non-manifold geometric modeling environment, NOODLES, to a Rapid Tool Fabrication System. This system integrates stereolithography and thermal spray deposition into a CAD/CAM environment which includes design evaluation tools, robotic spraying, and computer-aided process planning. The level of integration and the number of different models in this system requires geometric representations that can be abstracted at several levels and that can be manipulated over several dimensions. The models in our framework for design, analysis, and fabrication share a single comlnon unifying geometric representation implemented in NOODLES.Mechanical Engineerin

General characteristics of top 100 selling drugs: Turkish pharmaceutical market between 2003 and 2016

There have been many developments that affected the Turkish pharmaceutical market following the Health Transformation Program (2003) and Social Security Reform (2006). The objective of this study was to investigate effects of the developments in Turkish drug market between 2003 and 2006 on the general properties of top selling drugs. Sales figures of all pharmaceuticals between 2003-2016 were obtained from IMS-Health Turkey database. The top 100 pharmaceuticals with the highest sales for each year were included in the study. Pharmaceuticals classified according to their general characteristics (locally manufactured/imported/locally manufactured and imported, brand name/generic, biotech or blood products, ATC groupings). There were 2.593 brands of pharmaceuticals in 2003 and 4.461 in 2016. During the 14 years, total sales of pharmaceutical came up to 21.052.440.931 TRY from 5.487.899.850 TRY. Total sales of the top 100 pharmaceuticals in 2003 approximately was 2.1 billion TRY, and exceeded 6.9 billion TRY in 2016. In this top selling group, dominance of imported and brand name drugs has increased over the years. The total value of biotechnological pharmaceuticals in the top 100 pharmaceutical group increased from 100 million TRY in 2003 to 2.5 billion TRY in 2016. Biotechnological pharmaceuticals are all brand name drugs and imported. Pharmaceuticals in this group have been dominated by antibiotics between 2003-2011, and by oncology drugs for the following years. The result of our study demonstrated the importance of creating new molecules for the long-term, and producing pharmaceuticals with higher value added and more advanced technology in Turkey. [Med-Science 2018; 7(3.000): 684-90

A Multifaceted Evaluation of National Off-label Neurology Applications

Objective: Off-label drug use (OLDU) of neurologic diseases is approved by a regulatory authority, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency (TMMDA) in Turkey. It was aimed to investigate the most common neurologic drugs relevant to off-label prescribing and the most prescribed diagnosis, demographic and medical characteristics of patients with OLDU applications in Turkey