Towards Secure E-Voting Using Ethereum Blockchain

There is no doubt that the revolutionary concept of the blockchain, which is the underlying technology behind the famous cryptocurrency Bitcoin and its successors, is triggering the start of a new era in the Internet and the online services. While most people focus only at cryptocurrencies; in fact, many administrative operations, fintech procedures, and everyday services that can only be done offline and/or in person, can now safely be moved to the Internet as online services. What makes it a powerful tool for digitalizing everyday services is the introduction of smart contracts, as in the Ethereum platform. Smart contracts are meaningful pieces of codes, to be integrated in the blockchain and executed as scheduled in every step of blockchain updates. E-voting on the other hand, is another trending, yet critical, topic related to the online services. The blockchain with the smart contracts, emerges as a good candidate to use in developments of safer, cheaper, more secure, more transparent, and easier-to-use e-voting systems. Ethereum and its network is one of the most suitable ones, due to its consistency, widespread use, and provision of smart contracts logic. An e-voting system must be secure, as it should not allow duplicated votes and be fully transparent, while protecting the privacy of the attendees. In this work, we have implemented and tested a sample e-voting application as a smart contract for the Ethereum network using the Ethereum wallets and the Solidity language. Android platform is also considered to allow voting for people who do not have an Ethereum wallet. After an election is held, eventually, the Ethereum blockchain will hold the records of ballots and votes. Users can submit their votes via an Android device or directly from their Ethereum wallets, and these transaction requests are handled with the consensus of every single Ethereum node. This consensus creates a transparent environment for e-voting. In addition to a broad discussion about reliability and efficiency of the blockchain-based e-voting systems, our application and its test results are presented in this paper, too

Evaluation of the relationship between health belief of breast cancer screening and health anxiety; A cross-sectional study

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequent type of cancer among women. Screening and early diagnosis is crucial for reducing the disease burden. However the screening rates for BC is not at desired levels. Health belief and health anxiety are two conditions that affect participation in cancer screening. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between health beliefs regarding breast cancer screening and health anxiety among women. This cross-sectional study included 301 women between 20 and 69 years of age who were admitted to the family medicine outpatient clinic. The study data was collected using the Health Anxiety Inventory (HAI) and Champions Health Belief Model Scale (CHBMS). The questionnaires were filled with face-to-face interview technique. To explain the relationship between anxiety and the components of the health belief model a multivariate linear regression model was used. High anxiety levels were positively correlated with the seriousness and health motivation components and negatively correlated with the self-efficacy component of the health belief model related to breast cancer (p [Med-Science 2019; 8(2.000): 343-8

Comparing COVID-19 RT-PCR results, thorax computed tomography findings, and laboratory results of patients admitted to emergency medicine clinic with clinical symptoms of COVID-19 disease

In December 2019, cases of pneumonia of unknown origin were detected in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. It was later determined that the pathogen SARS-CoV, which causes these cases of pneumonia, has been identified as the new enveloped RNA Betacoronavirus 2, now called severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In Turkey, the first case was detected on March 10, 2020. This study aimed to evaluate the factors that will enable rapid diagnosis of the disease through comparison of COVID-19 RT PCR results, thorax computed tomography (CT) findings, and laboratory results of patients suspected with COVID-19 who visited Başkent University Ankara Hospital Emergency Medicine Clinic. In our sample of 515 patients (280 female and 235 male patients), infiltration was detected in 113 patients (21.9%) The ratio of females to males increased with age. When the sex distribution of the thoracic CT findings was examined, the incidence of infiltration was higher in male patients. Conversely, no statistically significant dependence was found between the two categories using the chi-squared test. Shortness of breath was observed in 32.7% of patients with positive thoracic CT findings. Other common complaints were chest pain, 12.4%; fever, 10.6%; and weakness, 9.7%, respectively. The other category, which covered unclassified arrival complaints, had the highest percentage in the entire sample. When the thoracic CT distribution of comorbidities was examined (hypertension, 29.2% and diabetes, 25.2%) were more common than the other comorbidities in terms of the presence of infiltration. Thoracic CT results with RT-PCR, which were analyzed using the chi-square test, showed a statistically significant dependence between them. Conversely, COVID-compatible thorax CT findings were detected in 80 of 260 patients who tested negative in the PCR test. No complaints of fever, cough, weakness, shortness of breath, or chest pain associated with COVID were found in 48.6% of patients who were thoracic CT positive. PCR showed a low sensitivity rate. Therefore, thoracic CT is a better choice than PCR for the detection of asymptomatic cases in emergency patients. Because its selectivity rate is high, using PCR as a diagnostic test is more significant. [Med-Science 2023; 12(3.000): 741-5

Impact of the HEAD-US Scoring System for Observing the Protective Effect of Prophylaxis in Hemophilia Patients: A Prospective, Multicenter, Observational Study

Objective: This study aimed to observe the preventive effect of prophylactic treatment on joint health in people with hemophilia (PwH) and to investigate the importance of integration of ultrasonographic examination into clinical and radiological evaluation of the joints

The prevalence of childhood psychopathology in Turkey: a cross-sectional multicenter nationwide study (EPICPAT-T)

Conclusion: This is the largest and most comprehensive epidemiological study to determine the prevalence of psychopathologies in children and adolescents in Turkey. Our results partly higher than, and partly comparable to previous national and international studies. It also contributes to the literature by determining the independent predictors of psychopathologies in this age group

The prevalence of childhood psychopathology in Turkey: a cross-sectional multicenter nationwide study (EPICPAT-T).

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of childhood psychopathologies in Turkey