Laryngoscopic Examination During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Turkish Voice Speech and Swallowing Disorders Society and Turkish Professional Voice Society Recommendations

COVID-19 is highly transmissible and spreads rapidly in the population. This increases the occupational risk for health care workers. In otolaryngology clinic practice, patients with upper respiratory tract infection symptoms are common. Also, routine head and neck examinations such as oral cavity examination, nasal/nasopharyngeal examination, or video laryngostroboscopic evaluation are highly risky because of the aerosol formation. To emphasize this issue, two leading otolaryngology organizations in Turkey; 'Voice Speech and Swallowing Disorders Society', and 'Professional Voice Society' gathered a task force. This task force aimed to prepare a consensus report that would provide practical recommendations of the safety measurements during routine clinical care of laryngology patients. To fulfill this, universal aim, on the 2nd and 9th of May 2020, two web-based meetings were conducted by 20 expert physicians. This eighteen items list was prepared as an output

Forecasting drug utilization and expenditure in a metropolitan health region

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>New pharmacological therapies are challenging the healthcare systems, and there is an increasing need to assess their therapeutic value in relation to existing alternatives as well as their potential budget impact. Consequently, new models to introduce drugs in healthcare are urgently needed. In the metropolitan health region of Stockholm, Sweden, a model has been developed including early warning (horizon scanning), forecasting of drug utilization and expenditure, critical drug evaluation as well as structured programs for the introduction and follow-up of new drugs. The aim of this paper is to present the forecasting model and the predicted growth in all therapeutic areas in 2010 and 2011.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Linear regression analysis was applied to aggregate sales data on hospital sales and dispensed drugs in ambulatory care, including both reimbursed expenditure and patient co-payment. The linear regression was applied on each pharmacological group based on four observations 2006-2009, and the crude predictions estimated for the coming two years 2010-2011. The crude predictions were then adjusted for factors likely to increase or decrease future utilization and expenditure, such as patent expiries, new drugs to be launched or new guidelines from national bodies or the regional Drug and Therapeutics Committee. The assessment included a close collaboration with clinical, clinical pharmacological and pharmaceutical experts from the regional Drug and Therapeutics Committee.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The annual increase in total expenditure for prescription and hospital drugs was predicted to be 2.0% in 2010 and 4.0% in 2011. Expenditures will increase in most therapeutic areas, but most predominantly for antineoplastic and immune modulating agents as well as drugs for the nervous system, infectious diseases, and blood and blood-forming organs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The utilisation and expenditure of drugs is difficult to forecast due to uncertainties about the rate of adoption of new medicines and various ongoing healthcare reforms and activities to improve the quality and efficiency of prescribing. Nevertheless, we believe our model will be valuable as an early warning system to start developing guidance for new drugs including systems to monitor their effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness in clinical practice.</p

Efficiency of generalized least squares estimator with applications to AR(1), SUR and heteroscedastic models.

TEZ9412Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- Çukurova Üniversitesi, Adana, 2013.Kaynakça (s. 109-110) var.viii, 120 s. : tablo ; 29 cm.Çoklu lineer regresyon modeli ve onun alışılmış en küçük kareler tahmini, hiç şüphesiz istatistikte yaygın şekilde kullanılan yöntemlerden biridir. Bu yöntem bağımlı değişken ile açıklayıcı değişkenler arasındaki ilişkiyi tahmin etmeye olanak sağlar. Genellikle pratikte klasik koşulların geçerli olmadığı görülür. Tüm bu klasik koşulların sağlanamamasının en küçük kareler (EKK) yöntemi üzerinde etkisi olmamasına rağmen, istatistik test sonuçları ve EKK in özellikleri etkilenir. Özellikle, y nin elemanları eşit olmayan varyansa sahip ve/ya da ilişkili olduklarında, var(y) artık skaler varyans-kovaryans matris değildir. Böylece EKK tahmin edici lineer yansız tahmin ediciler sınıfı içinde olmayı garanti edemez. Pratikte, y nin doğru özelliklerini bilmekte zorlanırız. Bu nedenle var(y) daha genel formda olduğunda geçerli tahmini incelemek önemlidir. Bu tezde, var(y) matrisi skaler varyans-kovaryans matrisi olmadığı durumda, tahminin etkinliğini geliştirmek için genelleştirilmiş en küçük kareler yöntemi tanıtılmış ve görünüşte ilişkisiz regresyon (SUR) ve heteroscedastic modellerde uygulamaları incelenmiştir.The multiple linear regression model and its estimation using ordinary least squares (OLS) is doubtless the most widely used tool in statistics. It allows to estimate the relation between a dependent variable and a set of explanatory variables. Generally, it is seen that the classical conditions need not hold in practice. Although these classical conditions have no effect on the OLS method, they do affect the properties of the OLS estimators and resulting test statistics. In particular, when the elements of y have unequal variances and/or are correlated, var(y) is no longer a scalar variance-covariance matrix and hence there is no guarantee that the OLS estimator is the most efficient within the class of linear unbiased (or the class of unbiased) estimators. In practice, we hardly know the true properties of y. It is therefore important to consider estimation that is valid when var(y) has a more general form. In this thesis, the method of generalized least squares (GLS) is introduced to improve upon estimation efficiency when var(y) is not a scalar variance-covariance matrix and its applications to seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) and heteroscedastic models are analyzed

Turkish adaptation of perceived future employability scale

Bu çalışmanın amacı Algılanan Gelecekteki İstihdam Edilebilirlik Ölçeği’nin (AGİEÖ) Türkçeye uyarlanarak üniversite öğrencileri için geçerlik ve güvenirliğinin incelenmesidir. Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu Karadeniz Bölgesi’nde bulunan iki üniversitede öğrenim gören 461 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. AGİEÖ’nün geçerlik çalışması kapsamında doğrulayıcı faktör analizi yapılmış, yakınsak ve ayırt edici geçerlik ve eş değer ölçek geçerliği incelenmiştir. Doğrulayıcı faktör analizi sonucunda orijinal yapıdaki gibi altı faktörlü yapının uyum indekslerinin kabul edilebilir değerlerde olduğu belirlenmiştir. Benzer şekilde, yapılan hesaplamalar sonucunda ölçeğin yakınsak ve ayırt edici geçerliği sağladığı görülmektedir. Eş değer ölçek geçerliği sonucunda da AGİEÖ’nün alt boyutları ile Kariyer Uyum Yetenekleri Ölçeği’nin alt boyut ve toplam puanları arasında pozitif yönde istatistiksel olarak anlamlı ilişkiler bulunmuştur. Diğer yandan AGİEÖ’nün eğitim kurumunun beklenen itibarı alt boyutu ile Kariyer Stresi Ölçeğinin toplam ve olumsuz duygular alt boyutu arasında negatif, düşük düzeyde anlamlı ilişkiler bulunmuştur. Ölçeğin toplam ve alt boyutlarına ilişkin Bileşik Güvenirlik ve Cronbach Alfa iç tutarlılık katsayılarının yeterli düzeyde olduğu bulunmuştur. Algılanan Gelecekteki İstihdam Edilebilirlik Ölçeği’nin üniversite öğrencilerinin gelecekteki becerilerini, deneyimlerini, iletişim ağlarını, kişisel özelliklerini iş gücü piyasası hakkındaki bilgilerini ve eğitimini tamamlayacakları üniversitenin itibarı hakkındaki algılarını ölçmede yeterli geçerlik ve güvenirlik değerlerine sahip olduğu söylenebilir.The aim of this study was to adapt the Perceived Future Employment Scale (PFES) into Turkish language and examine the reliability and validity among university students. The participants consisted of 461 students studying at two different universities in the Black Sea Region. In the validity study, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and the validity of the equivalent scale was examined. As a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, the fit indexes of the sixfactor structure as in the original structure were found to be acceptable. Similarly, the results of the calculations show that the scale provides convergent and discriminant validity. As a result of the validity of the equivalent scale, a statistically significant relationship was found between the subscales of the PFES and the subscales and total scores of the Career Adaptation Capabilities Scale. On the other hand, negative and low level of significant relationships were found between the expected reputation sub-dimension of the PFES and the total and negative emotions subdimension of the Career Stress Scale. Composite reliability and Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficients for the scale were found to be sufficient. As a result, it can be said that the Perceived Future Employability Scale has sufficient validity and reliability values for measuring university students' future skills, experiences, communication networks, personal characteristics, knowledge about the labor market and their perceptions about the reputation of the university they will complete their education

First Commercial Semen Cryopreservation and Main Spermatological Features of Anatolian Buffalo

Conventional buffalo semen freezing studies are limited in Anatolian buffaloes, which are overly sensitive to exogenous stimulation. The present study's object was to determine the main features of Anatolian buffalo semen obtained by artificial vagina method for the first time. A total number of 150 ejaculates were collected from three Anatolian Buffalo bulls (app. 4 years of age). The mean pH, volume and concentration of semen were found 6.63±0.15, 1.61±0.5 ml, 1629±222.67 x106 spermatozoa/ml, respectively. The sperm motion characteristics were determined by using a computer-assisted sperm analysis system (CASA); the total and progressively motile sperm values were 57.12±5.63%, 23.22±4.47% and other kinetic parameters such VAP, VSL, VCL, ALH, BCF, STR, LIN were found 94.71±8.48 µm/s, 72.6±7.08 µm/s, 160.9±15.66 µm/s, 7.8±3.75 µm, 29.15±1.56 Hz, 76.91±3.87%, 46.21±2.61%, respectively after thawing. Among buffalo bulls, differences in semen pH values were statistically significant (P>0.05), while differences in ejaculate volume, semen concentration, total motility, progressive motility, VAP, VSL, VCL, ALH, BCF, STR, and LIN were not (P>0.05). As a result, frozen Anatolian buffalo semen can be obtained economically and can be used for animal breeding in assisted reproductive biotechnology such as artificial insemination or in vitro embryo production commercially

Correction to: Sex differences in drugs: the development of a comprehensive knowledge base to improve gender awareness prescribing

Correction Unfortunately, after publication of this article [1], two errors were noticed. The names of Linnéa Karlsson Lind and Karin Schenck-Gustafsson were formatted incorrectly, attributing incorrect elements to the Given and Family names. Further to this, a reference in Fig. 1 was missing. The line reading, “Fig. 1 shows the working process and each step is explained in more detail below” should instead read, “Fig. 1, modified from Nörby et al. [2], shows the working process and each step is explained in more detail below”

Exploring the effects of eHealth service innovation

To analyse the impact of implementation and use of eHealth services is fraught with difficulty, and there is often a gap between expected and identified outcomes. In this paper, we identify innovation effects of an eHealth service by applying a framework that focusses on the expected coherent impacts of implementing an IT innovation and contributes to the body of knowledge on tracking innovation effects of services in eHealth. A case study examines four different care units in a government-funded health-care setting. The results show that the effects in the first two contexts of the framework, the micro level and intra-/interorganisational level, could be clearly identified with regard to the physicians and the organisation. However, effects were lacking in the virtual context when looking beyond the involvement of the stakeholders in the eHealth service. The connections between effects for societal groups and larger societal systems simply could not be made in a satisfactory manner