Importance of Strategic Flexibility on the Knowledge and Innovation Relationship: An Emerging Market Study

Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). This study seeks to explore the impact of strategic flexibility on the relationship between knowledge management and innovation performance. In order to achieve this, a self- administrated questionnaire was conducted on a sample of 187 firms from different industries in Turkey and a couple of hypotheses were tested. The two way interaction of knowledge management and strategic flexibility was associated more strongly with innovation performance than the direct and single relationship of knowledge management and innovation performance. Therefore, it was found that the effectiveness of knowledge management leading to innovation performance is contingent on strategic flexibility

Comparison of two traditional spa therapy regimens in patients with knee osteoarthritis - An exploratory study

Purpose: To compare the effects of two different traditional spa therapy regimens for knee osteoarthritis (OA) on function and pain. Patients and Methods: Patients with knee osteoarthritis staying in a spa hotel in Sandikli Spa for traditional spa therapy (8 days) were asked to be included in the study. Total of 49 patients gave informed consent consisting two groups based on treatment regimens as follows: Group I (n = 24) had a thermal water bath and a peloid bath per day; Group II (n = 25) had two thermal mineral water baths per day. The primary outcome measure was Lequesne's knee severity index. Secondary measures were pain intensity (visual analogue scale), 10 meters walking time, 3 times squatting down and up time and 10 stairs stepping up and down time. An unblinded observer carried out all assessments at the beginning and at the end of the spa therapy. Results: In both groups, improvements were found in Lequesne's Knee Index (49.3% in group I and 31.3% in group II, respectively) (p < 0.001) and improvement in group I was significantly higher than group II (p < 0.001). VAS scores for pain reduced in both groups (37.3% and 30.1%) and this reduction was significantly higher in group I (p = 0.003). All other 3 measures also showed significant improvements in both groups and again improvements were significantly higher in group I than group II. Conclusions: Both traditional spa therapy regimens could significantly improve the functional status and pain on patients with knee OA in the present study. Spa therapy combining thermal bath and peloid application seems having better improvement than the therapy with twice-daily thermal baths in knee OA, but this difference may not be clinically relevant

Balneotherapy and spa therapy of rheumatic diseases in Turkey: A systematic review

Aim: Turkey has a lot of thermal and mineral springs and is looking back on a still vivid tradition of spa therapy and balneotherapy, applied especially for the treatment of rheumatic diseases. This tradition is predominantly empiric and intuitive, however, it has assumed some important aspects of modern balneotherapeutic methods as well. This article is aimed at presenting the characteristics of traditional and modern balneological and spa therapy forms in Turkey. Method: The studies which have been conducted between 1990 and 2000 in different spas in Turkey on the efficacy and effectiveness of spa therapy and balneotherapy for rheumatic diseases have been searched and analyzed independent of their design. A descriptive evaluation of the studies was carried out. Results: A total of 15 published studies have been found and analyzed. The investigations have been carried out in 8 different spa resorts in Turkey. In these studies the effectiveness and efficacy of different balneological and spa therapies on a variety of rheumatic diseases (from osteoarthritis to fibromyalgia and from rheumatoid arthritis to low back pain) could be shown. Nearly all studied balneotherapeutic modalities were applied as bathing cures. Only in one study peloid therapy was applied. Balneotherapeutic therapy was applied in a modern and traditional way, and both open and stationary spa therapy forms were used at the same time. Conlusions: The review has shown the effectiveness of the investigated spa therapy and balneotherapy forms. It could be concluded that nearly all forms of spa therapy and balneotherapy used for the treatment of rheumatic diseases in Turkey are effective. A definitive conclusion, however, is not possible because of the heterogeneity of the study designs, methodological flaws, and the publication bias. In future good quality randomized controlled trials are needed

Spa therapy and balneotherapy for treating low back pain: meta-analysis of randomized trials

Objectives. Low back pain is a major public health concern and complementary treatments are frequently used for this condition. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the evidence for or against the effectiveness of spa therapy and balneotherapy for treating low back pain

Clinical efficacy of spa therapy (balneotherapy) for chronic low back pain: A randomized single-blind trial

Introduction: The effect of spa therapy, a non-pharmacological treatment for chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been evaluated by several randomized clinical trials. This randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the effect of balneotherapy alone versus balneotherapy with physical exercise

SPA therapy in fibromyalgia: a randomised controlled clinic study

Objective: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of spa therapy in the management of fibromyalgia. Methods: Thirty women with fibromyalgia were randomly assigned to either a spa therapy group or a control group. The spa therapy group (n = 16) had spa treatment for 2 weeks in addition to their medical treatment. The control group (n = 14) continued to have their medical treatment and/or daily exercises. An investigator who was blinded for the intervention assessed all the patients for 9 months. Improvements in Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), pain and number of tender points were primary outcomes. Secondary outcome measures were improvement in sleep disturbance, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, anxiety, Beck Depression Inventory and patient's global evaluation. Results: the spa group was found to be superior to the control group at the end of intervention in terms of FIQ, pain, tender point count, fatigue and patients' global assessment. This superiority remained for 6 months in FIQ, 1 month in pain and tender point count. Conclusion: It was concluded that the addition of spa therapy to medical therapy has both short- and long-term beneficial effects in female patients with fibromyalgia

Kinematic-Kinetic-Rigidity Evaluation of a Six Axis Robot Performing a Task

Six axis serial robots of different sizes are widely used for pick and place, welding and various other operations in industry. Developments in mechatronics, which is the synergistic integration of mechanism, electronics and computer control to achieve a functional system, offer effective solutions for the design of such robots. The integrated analysis of robots is usually used in the design stage. In this study, it is offered that the integrated analysis of robots can also be used at the application stage. SolidWorks, CosmosMotion and ABAQUS programs are used with an integrated approach. Integration software (IS) is developed in Visual Basic by using the application programming interface (API) capabilities of these programs. An ABB-IRB1400 industrial robot is considered for the study. Different trajectories are considered. Each task is first evaluated by a kinematic analysis. If the task is out of the workspace, then the task is cancelled. This evaluation can also be done by robot programs like Robot Studio. It is proposed that the task must be evaluated by considering the limits for velocities, motor actuation torques, reaction forces, natural frequencies, displacements and stresses due to the flexibility. The evaluation is done using kinematic, kinetic and rigidity evaluation charts. The approach given in this work can be used for the optimal usage of robots