Comparative Analysis of Kolmogorov-Inspired CNN and Traditional CNN Models for Pneumonia Detection: A Study on Chest CT Images

Aim: In this study, our goal is to compare the effectiveness of Kolmogorov Inspired Convolutional Neural Networks (KAN) with traditional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) models in pneumonia detection and to contribute to the development of more efficient and accurate diagnostic tools in the field of medical imaging. Methods: Both models are structured with the same layers and hyperparameters to ensure a fair comparison of their performance. For a robust evaluation, the relevant dataset was divided into 80% for training and 20% for testing. Results and Conclusion: Performance metrics of KAN; 95.2% sensitivity, 97.6% specificity, 94.1% precision, 96.9% accuracy (Acc), 0.9466 F1 score (F1) and 0. 9251 Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC), while the CNN model was found 92.5%, 96.4%, 91.2%, 95.3%, 0.9188 and 0.8858 for the same criteria, indicating that KAN outperformed. This comparison emphasizes that KAN has the potential to be a more effective model for pneumonia detection in chest CT images

Comparison of fast regression algorithms in large datasets

The aim is to compare the performances of fast regression methods, namely dimensional reduction of correlation matrix (DRCM), nonparametric dimensional reduction of correlation matrix (N-DRCM), variance inflation factor (VIF) regression, and robust VIF (R-VIF) regression in the presence of multicollinearity and outliers problems. In all simulation-scenarios, all the target variables were chosen for final models using four methods. The DRCM and N-DRCM are the methods that reach the final model in the shortest time, respectively. The time to reach the final model using R-VIF regression was approximately twice shorter than that of VIF regression. In each method, as the number of variables and the level of outliers increased, the time taken to reach the final model increased. When the level of multicollinearity and the number of variables (p > 500) increased, the times to reach the final models using DRCM in datasets with outliers were slightly shorter than the those of N-DRCM. The largest numbers of noise variables were selected to the model using DRCM and N-DRCM, but the least number of them were selected to the model using the R-VIF regression. The RMSE values obtained using DRCM, N-DRCM and VIF regression were similar in each scenario. As a result of the real dataset, the final model selected using R-VIF regression had the highest R2 . It also had the lowest RMSE value among those obtained with other approaches excluding VIF regression. As such, the R-VIF regression method demonstrated a better performance than the others in all datasets

Evaluation of the functional status of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease via the modeling approach

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is common worldwide. COPD has negative effects on the quality of life of the patient due to restrictions on daily activities. It can cause a major healthcare burden according to the stage and grade of disease.Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the physical and psychological functional capacity factors affecting patients’ functional performance and to develop a COPD-specific functional status model using these factors.Methods: A group of randomly selected patients (n=183) diagnosed with COPD at a university hospital in Turkey comprised the study sample. Physical examinations were carried out on all patients and they completed questionnaires that included socio demographic and disease characteristics, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Functional Performance Inventory and Short Form-36 Survey. The proposed theoretical model was analyzed in the LISREL program using the structural equation modeling approach.Results: We found that the independent latent variable of the physiological functional capacity yielded a significant positive effect on the dependent latent variable of functional performance, while the psychological functional capacity produced no significant effect.Conclusions: The COPD-specific functional status model should prove to be an effective and beneficial tool for issues such as treatment maintenance and for the preservation or improvement of patients’ quality of life. [Ethiop.J. Health Dev. 2019; 33(2):81-87]Keywords: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, functional status, functional performance, functional capacity, structural equation modelin

Effect of foot anthropometric measurements on postural stability

Aim: To examine the effect of foot anthropometric measurements and body sizes of young male adults with normal posture on balance. Methods: In this study, the effect of body size and foot anthropometric measurements of 112 young male adults with normal posture on balance was investigated. The foot and body parameters of the cases were measured. The static and the dynamic balance tests were evaluated according to the dominant foot in each case. The parameters that affected balance were determined and the variables were taken to the model. In addition, the significance levels that defined the effects of the properties examined in relation with the balance were also calculated. Results: When the findings were evaluated, it was determined that the effect of the foot parameters other than the foot length, and the effect of 15 body parameters other than the biiliac diameter, trochanteric height, and right upper extremity length on balance performance was significant. The balance test performance was predicted with success ranging from 7.8% to 43% with the parameters included in the model. Conclusion: In this study, the fact that the relation between the foot anthropometric and body dimensions and functional balance performances of young male adults was found to be significant shows that this relation must be considered in the creation of a normative database on balance, and in clinical studies that will be conducted on the subject

Volunteer Surgical Camp at Gombe Hospital in Uganda

Background: The Islamic University Habib Medical School in Uganda (IUIU), in collaboration with Doctors Worldwide (DWW) from Turkey, organized a surgical camp in April 2014. In this camp, different types of hernia repair, among other general surgical procedures were conducted. The target population was the population within the Gombe hospital serving districts.Methods: The defined area for the surgical camp was Butambala and neighboring districts including Mpigi; Gomba, Mityana, and parts of Wakiso district. The IUIU team and Gombe hospital team were respectful to the sensitivities of the community, district and government officials. The surgical team composed of 4 surgeons (three from DWW-Turkey and one from Uganda), 3 Anesthesiologists, (two from DWW-Turkey and one from Uganda), 2 nurses and 2 intern doctor, (one from DWW-Turkey and one from Uganda).Results: The total number of patients operated was 115; however the total number of operations performed was 130. One hundred and fourteen operations were different types of hernia repair. The ages of hernia patients ranged between 1 and 80 years (mean±SD is 27.46±24.55). Hemoglobin values ranged between 9.2 and 17 (mean±SD is 12.5±1.48). Only two (1.8%) of 114 hernia patients had positive results on HIV serology. Sixteen patients underwent circumcision. Of those, only two (12.5%) patients had positive results on HIV serology.Conclusion: Hernia is a common surgical problem in all age groups. It is more common in men. In addition to the operations conducted, the need for surgery for 187 patients was detected. This condition shows that the hernia operation is commonly accepted as a negligible condition.Keywords: Global surgery; Provincial; Hernia; World Wide Doctors; Ugand

Development and Assessment of a Coping Scale for Infertile Women in Turkey

Infertile women feel more psychological stress and pressure than their husbands, and the prevalence of anxiety and depression among them are higher. This study aimed to develop a culture-specific measurement tool to identify the strategies of infertile women in dealing with infertility-related problems. This was a scale development study. This study was carried out in three different fertility centers in the three largest cities in Turkey. The data were collected using personal information form and through the application of a Coping Scale for Infertile Women (CSIW) protocol. Ways of Coping with Stress Inventory. Cronbach‘s alpha, Intraclass Correlation Coefficient and Spearman‘s Rank correlation analyses were used to determine the reliability of the scale. The results of explanatory factor analysis and a factor structure of the Coping Scale for Infertile Women, comprising 50 items, were examined, and the data were determined to be suitable to perform factor analysis. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be 0.880. The number of factors in the scale was 10, and the internal consistency of the factors was 0.720. The results showed that the CSIW had good reliability and validity.Keywords: Infertility, Women, Coping, Scale developmen

Effects of Pain and Disability on Quality of Life in Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Objective: To evaluate the association between severity of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), pain, disability and to assess their effects on quality of life. Methods: CTS patients whose diagnosis were confirmed with nerve conduction studies were classified as mild, moderate, and severe. Pain evaluation was performed by Pain Quality Assessment Scale (PQAS) in all patients. Short form-36 (SF-36) was used to assess quality of life and Brief Disability Scale was used in the evaluation of disability. Results: 93.1% of the patients were women, and 6.9% were men. Mean age was 44.20 +/- 8.76 years (range=29-62). Mean duration of symptoms was 6.67 +/- 3.00 months (range=3-12 months). Most common symptom was paresthesia. Electrophysiological evaluations revealed moderate CTS in 43.8%, mild CTS in 44.8%, severe CTS in 6.9% of the patients. There was no significant association between CTS severity and time course subgroup of PQAS (p=0.222). But there was a statistically significant difference in the general pain subgroup and total scores of PQAS between moderate and severe CTS patients (p<0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of Brief Disability Questionnaire between patients with mild and severe CTS (4,46 +/- 3,61 and 11,50 +/- 4,94, p<0.05, respectively). A statistically significant negative correlation was found between the level of disability and physical function, pain, vitality, social function and mental health domains of SF-36. Conclusion: Quality of life is variably affected in patients with CTS due to the severity of CTS. On this aspect, it is important to diagnose and treat CTS on time to improve the quality of life of patients with CTS in early period, which is the best known and common compression neuropathy of upper extremity in community

Sixth Class Students' Performance and Confidence Levels Before and After Training in Clinical Skills Laboratories

Background: Acquisition of basic clinical skills by undergraduate medical students is becoming of greater concern. Clinical skills laboratories may provide a comfortable environment for training and may allow students to gain adequate performance level. The aim of this study is to evaluate students' performance and confidence levels before and after training of selected procedural skills; also to explore students' expectation towards skills laboratory training. Methods: Two questionnaires were conducted before and after training sessions in the clinical skills laboratory, school of medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan. The skills selected for this study: suture practice, venous access, arterial access, intradermal and intramuscular injection, central venous cannulation, male and female urinary catheterization, nasogastric tube placement and rectal examination. Although fifty-seven 6th year medical students filled the first questionnaire at the beginning before training, only 29 students could attend all training sessions, and fill the second questionnaire. Results: For all trained clinical skills, the mean students' performance scores and confidence levels were significantly increased after training (P &lt;0.001). Expectations of students for skills laboratory were high. Conclusions: The students' performance and confidence levels were significantly improved after training in the clinical skills laboratory

Comparison of the healthcare-associated infections in intensive care units in Turkey before and during COVID-19

BackgroundSecondary bacterial infections are an important cause of mortality in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). All healthcare providers acted with utmost care with the reflex of protecting themselves during the COVID-19 period. We aimed to compare the rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and bloodstream infections (BSIs) in our intensive care units (ICUs) before and during the COVID-19 outbreak surges.MethodsThis multicenter, retrospective, cross-sectional study was performed in six centers in Turkey. We collected the patient demographic characteristics, comorbidities, reasons for ICU admission, mortality and morbidity scores at ICU admission, and laboratory test data.ResultsA total of 558 patients who required intensive care from six centers were included in the study. Four hundred twenty-two of these patients (males (62%), whose mean age was 70 [IQR, 58-79] years) were followed up in the COVID period, and 136 (males (57%), whose mean age was 73 [IQR, 61-82] years) were followed up in the pre-COVID period. BSI and VAP rates were 20.7 (19 events in 916 patient days) and 17 (74 events in 4361 patient days) with a -3.8 difference (P = 0.463), and 33.7 (31 events in 919 patient days) and 34.6 (93 events in 2685 patient days) with a 0.9 difference (P = 0.897), respectively. The mortality rates were 71 (52%) in pre-COVID and 291 (69%) in COVID periods.ConclusionProtective measures that prioritize healthcare workers rather than patients and exceed standard measures made no difference in terms of reducing mortality.We are thankful to all dedicated healthcare workers at tertiary hospitals in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.We are thankful to all dedicated healthcare workers at tertiary hospitals in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Detecting imipenem resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii by automated systems (BD Phoenix, Microscan WalkAway, Vitek 2); high error rates with Microscan WalkAway

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasing reports of carbapenem resistant <it>Acinetobacter baumannii </it>infections are of serious concern. Reliable susceptibility testing results remains a critical issue for the clinical outcome. Automated systems are increasingly used for species identification and susceptibility testing. This study was organized to evaluate the accuracies of three widely used automated susceptibility testing methods for testing the imipenem susceptibilities of <it>A. baumannii </it>isolates, by comparing to the validated test methods.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Selected 112 clinical isolates of <it>A. baumanii </it>collected between January 2003 and May 2006 were tested to confirm imipenem susceptibility results. Strains were tested against imipenem by the reference broth microdilution (BMD), disk diffusion (DD), Etest, BD Phoenix, MicroScan WalkAway and Vitek 2 automated systems. Data were analysed by comparing the results from each test method to those produced by the reference BMD test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MicroScan performed true identification of all <it>A. baumannii </it>strains while Vitek 2 unidentified one strain, Phoenix unidentified two strains and misidentified two strains. Eighty seven of the strains (78%) were resistant to imipenem by BMD. Etest, Vitek 2 and BD Phoenix produced acceptable error rates when tested against imipenem. Etest showed the best performance with only two minor errors (1.8%). Vitek 2 produced eight minor errors(7.2%). BD Phoenix produced three major errors (2.8%). DD produced two very major errors (1.8%) (slightly higher (0.3%) than the acceptable limit) and three major errors (2.7%). MicroScan showed the worst performance in susceptibility testing with unacceptable error rates; 28 very major (25%) and 50 minor errors (44.6%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Reporting errors for <it>A. baumannii </it>against imipenem do exist in susceptibility testing systems. We suggest clinical laboratories using MicroScan system for routine use should consider using a second, independent antimicrobial susceptibility testing method to validate imipenem susceptibility. Etest, whereever available, may be used as an easy method to confirm imipenem susceptibility.</p