Sample size, power and effect size revisited: simplified and practical approaches in pre-clinical, clinical and laboratory studies

Calculating the sample size in scientific studies is one of the critical issues as regards the scientific contribution of the study. The sample size critically affects the hypothesis and the study design, and there is no straightforward way of calculating the effective sample size for reaching an accurate conclusion. Use of a statistically incorrect sample size may lead to inadequate results in both clinical and laboratory studies as well as resulting in time loss, cost, and ethical problems. This review holds two main aims. The first aim is to explain the importance of sample size and its relationship to effect size (ES) and statistical significance. The second aim is to assist researchers planning to perform sample size estimations by suggesting and elucidating available alternative software, guidelines and references that will serve different scientific purposes

Analysis of the Perceptions of Student-Athletes Playing In the Universities Volleyball 2nd League in Turkey towards the Event Quality

The purpose of this research is to analyze the perceptions of student-athletes who played in Universities Volleyball Second League competitions held in Antalya on 16th-27th December 2014 towards the event quality. Target population of the study is composed of the student-athletes studying in universities in Turkey and playing in the volleyball teams of universities at the same time, and the sample group of the study is composed of 23 student-athletes from different universities who participated in Universities Volleyball Second League held in Antalya on 16th-27th December 2014. With the purpose of determining the perceptions of student-athletes towards quality, the participants were applied a survey. SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) for Windows 21.0 program was used in the analysis of data. Descriptive statistics, t-test for determining the difference between two groups, One-way Anova test for comparisons of more than two groups and post-hoc test for group differences were used. In conclusion, it has been determined that the quality perceptions of the participants regarding the event held are positive. It has also been demonstrated that there are differences in the quality perceptions of the participants by their families’ educational background; however, a significant difference hasn’t been observed by age, sex, grade point average and income level

The Effects of Unit Exercises on the Hand Grip Strength of Arm Wrestlers

The aim of this research is to evaluate the change in the hand grip strength of the male arm wrestlers before and after a unit of exercise. The participants of the research consist of sportsmen (n=16) of Fırat University arm wrestling team in 18-25 age group.Within the scope of the research, all of the tests and measurements (age, length, body weight, sports age, hand grip strength) were carried out on the experimental group before they started training and the same tests were repeated just after the exercises. A unit of exercise program consisted of warm up, cool down, and 5 sets of weight lifting with 12 repetitions and intensity of 70% that were in that day’s plan and program applied by the trainer.While descriptive statistics were adopted in the statistical analysis, to identify the significance level between the hand grip strength before and after the exercise paired sample t-test analysis was used. The significance level was shown as α = 0.05 in the analyses. While the right hand grip strength of the sportsmen (n=16) was statistically significant at 51.1062 ± 1.69709 before and 49.0437 ± 1.71770 (p=0.000) after the exercise, the left hand grip strength was statistically significant at 46.9000 ± 1.16179 before and 45.8063 ± 1.30078 (p=0.000) after the exercise.In conclusion, it was observed that there is a statistically significant negative decline in the hand grip strength of the arm wrestling sportsmen after a unit of exercise and it can be said that it is because of the exhaustion expected after the exercise

Analysis of the influence of mobbing and violence acts on the safety of workers

The aim of this study is to identify the factors responsible for the safety and violence problems faced by doctors and healthcare workers at private and state institutions. This study, which is a practical research, was conducted with the subjects selected from Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Urfa, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Trabzon, Samsun, Tekirdað and Van within the borders of Turkey. A total of 1792 healthcare workers participated in this study. The study lasted for almost 11 months. All of the participants were chosen randomly. Following the reliability analysis, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was found to be 0.821. In this study, the hypothesis tests were applied, and reliability analysis, frequency tables, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and one-way variance analysis were used as part of the analysis. It has been detected in the study that the participating healthcare workers have concerns over occupational safety and legal rights and that the current laws do not protect them, and that they experience traumatic problems due to the violence perpetrated by the patients and patient relatives who do not respect their profession and professional responsibilities accordingly

Safety and efficacy of transdermal fentanyl in patients with cancer pain: phase IV, Turkish oncology group trial

We have performed a prospective evaluation of the efficacy, safety and convenience of the transdermal therapeutic system - fentanyl (TTS-F) in Turkish cancer patients when it was newly available in Turkey. Ninety-nine patients with historically confirmed malignancy and pain entered the study; the mean age was 55.1 (16-58) years. The study duration was 28 days. Transdermal therapeutic system - fentanyl was used in opioid-naive or pre-treated patients. Most patients reported a decrease in pain severity. Use of rescue medication decreased from day 4 to day 28. The majority of patients rated patch convenience of use as excellent. A total of 22.2% of patients experienced adverse events that were either probably related or very likely to be related to the study drug. The majority of the adverse events mentioned were related to the digestive system. Eighteen serious adverse events were reported by 13 patients. Six events were doubtfully related, and 12 events were not related to the study drug. Four patients died during the trial. None of these deaths was attributed to the study drug. In conclusion, the trial showed that TTS-F is easily managed, effective and will help to enable the appropriate opioid administration to patients who are suffering from cancer pain in Turkey

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in symptomatic patients and detection of clarithromycin resistance using melting curve analysis

AbstractBackground:Clarithromycin is often a component of combination therapies for Helicobacter pylori eradication; however, increases in resistance rates have decreased the success of the treatment.Objective:This study was designed to determine the prevalence of H pylori infection in symptomatic patients and to detect clarithromycin resistance rates using melting curve analysis.Methods:Patients scheduled for upper endoscopy at the Endoscopy Unit of the Department of Gastroenterology, Duzce University, Medical Faculty Hospital, Konuralp/Duzce, Turkey, were assessed for enrollment in the study. Two pairs of gastric biopsy specimens (antrum and corpus) were obtained from each study patient. Histopathologic examination, rapid urease test, culture, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the specimens were used to identify H pylori infection. Clarithromycin resistance was detected using melting curve analysis.Results:Seventy-five patients (41 women, 34 men; mean [SD]age, 42.6 [14.5] years [range, 17–70 years]) were included in the study. Using histopathology and rapid urease test, H pylori was detected in 40 (53.3%) of the 75 specimens. H pylori was detected using PCR in 40 (53.3%) specimens and by culture in 10 (13.3%) specimens. The specificity and sensitivity of PCR and culture were interpreted by comparing them with the results of histopathologic examination and urease tests. The specificity and sensitivity of PCR were 68.6% and 72.5%, respectively, and the specificity and sensitivity of culture were 97.1% and 22.5%, respectively. Of the 40 isolates, 21 (52.5%) were susceptible to clarithromycin, 12 (30.0%) were resistant, and a mixed susceptibility pattern was detected in 7 (17.5%) specimens. H pylori isolates from 19 (79.2%) of the 24 patients who had formerly used clarithromycin showed clarithromycin resistance.Conclusions:The prevalence of H pylori infection was 53.3% for the symptomatic patients in this study, and 47.5% of the isolates showed clarithromycin resistance using melting curve analysis. The PCR-based system used in this study was accurate for the detection of H pylori infection as well as clarithromycin susceptibility testing directly in biopsy specimens

Impaired IL-23-dependent induction of IFN-gamma underlies mycobacterial disease in patients with inherited TYK2 deficiency

Human cells homozygous for rare loss-of-expression (LOE) TYK2 alleles have impaired, but not abolished, cellular responses to IFN-alpha/beta (underlying viral diseases in the patients) and to IL-12 and IL-23 (underlying mycobacterial diseases). Cells homozygous for the common P1104A TYK2 allele have selectively impaired responses to IL-23 (underlying isolated mycobacterial disease). We report three new forms of TYK2 deficiency in six patients from five families homozygous for rare TYK2 alleles (R864C, G996R, G634E, or G1010D) or compound heterozygous for P1104A and a rare allele (A928V). All these missense alleles encode detectable proteins. The R864C and G1010D alleles are hypomorphic and loss-of-function (LOF), respectively, across signaling pathways. By contrast, hypomorphic G996R, G634E, and A928V mutations selectively impair responses to IL-23, like P1104A. Impairment of the IL-23-dependent induction of IFN-gamma is the only mechanism of mycobacterial disease common to patients with complete TYK2 deficiency with or without TYK2 expression, partial TYK2 deficiency across signaling pathways, or rare or common partial TYK2 deficiency specific for IL-23 signaling.ANRS Nord-Sud ; CIBSS ; CODI ; Comité para el Desarrollo de la Investigación ; Fulbright Future Scholarshi

Bilinmeyen değişken ortamda modelleyerek irdeleme ve öğrenme yöntemleriyle nesnelerin değişik algılayıcılardan bilgi füzyonu elde edilerek tanımlanması

TÜBİTAK MİSAG31.07.1993Rapor "Bilinmeyen Değişken Ortamda. Modelleyerek İrdeleme ve Öğrenme Yöntemleriyle Nesnelerin Değişik Algılayıcılardan Gelen Bilginin Birleştlrimi Yoluyla Tanımlanması" konusunda yapılan çalışmaları özetlemektedir. Birden çok algılayıcıdan edinilen bilgilerdeki cluyaçlardan ileri gelen belirsizlikler ve gürültü önce en aza indirgenmekledir. Burada önişlem algoritmaları kullanılmaktadır. Duyaç bilgisindeki belirsizlik ve eksilikler diğer duyanlardan, elde olunanlarla tamamlanmakta sonuçtaki görüntünün taşıdığı bilginin tama yakın olması sağlanmaktadır. Bundan sonra görüntü üzerinde nesne tanıma algoritmaları uygulanmaktadır. Nesne tanıma, kenar çizgisi belirlenmiş nesne örüntüleri. üzerine inşa edilmiştir. Nesnenin kenar çizgisi, bu çizginin boyu, orunlunun ağırlık merkezi, ve birinci ve ikinci momentlerin bellekteki modelde tanımlananlarla karşılaştırılmasıyla tanıma işlemi tamamlanmaktadır. Tanınamayan yeni bir nesne örüntüsü ve ilişkili bilgiler yeni bir nesne olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Sisteme bu yöntemle öğrenebilir bir yapı kazandırılmştır. Gerçekleştirilen donanımsal yapıda ultrasonik duyaç dizisi bir robot kol bileğine bağlanmış tüm tarayarak alınacak görüntü kol bir tür süpürme hareketi sonucunda alınmaktadır. Kol bu işlemi takiben üzerinde işlem görülecek nesneleri tanıyıp, yerlerini ve duruş biçim ve yönlerini belirledikten sonra gerekli, manevralara başlayabilecektir. Bu ise kolun yörünge planlamasının yapılmasına ilişkin çalışmalara konu olmaktadır. Çalışma ekinde çalışma sürecinde yapılmış olan yayınların (Türkçe) birer kopyası verilmektedir

A rare cause of ileus: Gallstone ileus

Safra taşı ileusu nadir görülen bir hastalıktır. Mekanik obstruksiyonlu hastaların yaklaşık %1-4’ünü oluşturur. Teşhiste gecikmeden dolayı mortalite ve morbiditesi yüksektir. İnce barsakta tıkanmaya neden olan ve kesin tanısını ameliyat esnasında koyduğumuz safra taşı ileusu vakasını sunduk.Gallstone ileus is a rare disease, which is responsible for about 1-4% of all cases of mechanical obstruction. The morbidity and mortality rate remain very high, mainly because of delayed diagnosis. We report a case of gallstone ileus which caused intestinal obstruction which was definitively diagnosed on operation

Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori in symptomatic patients and detection of clarithromycin resistance using melting curve analysis

WOS: 000248245200003PubMed: 24683206Background: Clarithromycin is often a component of combination therapies for Helicobacter pylori eradication; however, increases in resistance rates have decreased the success of the treatment. Objective: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of H pylori infection in symptomatic patients and to detect clarithromycin resistance rates using melting curve analysis. Methods: Patients scheduled for upper endoscopy at the Endoscopy Unit of the Department of Gastroenterology, Duzce University, Medical Faculty Hospital, Konuralp/Duzce, Turkey, were assessed for enrollment in the study. Two pairs of gastric biopsy specimens (antrum and corpus) were obtained from each study patient. Histopathologic examination, rapid urease test, culture, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the specimens were used to identify H pylori infection. Clarithromycin resistance was detected using melting curve analysis. Results: Seventy-five patients (41 women, 34 men; mean [SD] age, 42.6 [14.5] years [range, 17-70 years]) were included in the study. Using histopathology and rapid urease test, H pylori was detected in 40 (53.3%) of the 75 specimens. H pylori was detected using PCR in 40 (53.3%) specimens and by culture in 10 (13.3%) specimens. The specificity and sensitivity of PCR and culture were interpreted by comparing them with the results of histopathologic examination and urease tests. The specificity and sensitivity of PCR were 68.6% and 72.5%, respectively, and the specificity and sensitivity of culture were 97.1% and 22.5%, respectively. Of the 40 isolates, 21 (52.5%) were susceptible to clarithromycin, 12 (30.0%) were resistant, and a mixed susceptibility pattern was detected in 7 (17.5%) specimens. H pylori isolates from 19 (79.2%) of the 24 patients who had formerly used clarithromycin showed clarithromycin resistance. Conclusions: The prevalence of H pylori infection was 53.3% for the symptomatic patients in this study, and 47.5% of the isolates showed clarithromycin resistance using melting curve analysis. The PCR-based system used in this study was accurate for the detection of H pylori infection as well as clarithromycin susceptibility testing directly in biopsy specimens