Objective: Urinary incontinence (UI) is one of the most distressing postoperative problems of radical prostatectomy (RP) and negatively affects the quality of life (QOL). We assessed the effect of pelvic muscle exercises (PME), electrical stimulation (ES) and biofeedback (BFB) on UI after RP. Materials and Methods: 80 patients, who underwent RP, were randomized into three groups. Group I (n=26) received instructions about PME, group II (n=26) received ES and group III (n=28) received ES plus BFB. The treatment was started one week after catheter removal, twice a week for 12 weeks. The evaluation of continence was performed at time 0, 6, 12 weeks, and 24 weeks during follow-up, using the 24-hour pad test and the QOL using the incontinence impact questionnaire -7 (IIQ-7). Results: The mean leakage weight became significantly lower (p<0.05) in group III than in groups II and I starting at 6 weeks until 24 weeks of follow-up. A significant difference (p<0.05) between the groups in terms of percentage of continent patients was achieved from 12 weeks (71.42%, 53.85% and 34.62%) to 24 weeks (96.43%, 76.92% and 65.38%) for groups III, II and I, respectively. Conclusion: Early, noninvasive therapy with ES and BFB has a significant positive effect on the duration and the degree of UI and QOL. Turk J Phys Med Re hab 2012;58:170-6. Key Words: Urinary incontinence; radical prostatectomy; electrical stimulation; biofeedback Özet Amaç: Üriner inkontinans (Üİ) radikal prostatektominin (RP) en sıkıntı verici ameliyat sonrası komplikasyonlarından olup, yaşam kalitesini (YK) olumsuz etkiler. Bu çalışmada pelvik kas egzersizleri (PKE), elektrik stimülasyonu (ES) ve biofeedback (BFB) uygulamasının RP sonrası Üİ üzerindeki etkisini araştırdık. Gereç ve Yöntem: RP geçirmiş 80 hasta üç gruba randomize edildi. Grup I e (n=26) PKE, Grup II'ye (n=26) ES ve Grup III'e (n=28) ES artı BFB verildi. Kateterin çıkarılmasından bir hafta sonra başlanan tedavi on iki hafta boyunca haftada iki gün uygulandı. 0, 6, 12 ve 24. haftalardaki takip sırasında kontinans 24 saatlik ped testi ile yaşam kalitesi ise inkontinans etki anketi-7 (IIQ-7) ile değerlendirilmiştir. Bulgular: Grup I de, altıncı haftadan başlayarak 24 üncü hafta takiplerine kadar görülen ortalama sızıntı miktarı Grup I ve II ye göre önemli ölçüde daha azdı. Gruplarda kontinans oranı bakımından 12. haftada (Grup III, II ve I için sırasıyla %71,42, %53,85 ve %34,62) ve 24 üncü haftada (%94,43, %76,92 ve %65,38) önemli farklara ulaşıldı. Sonuç: ES ve BFB ile erken noninvaziv terapinin Üİ süresi ve derecesi ile YK üzerinde önemli bir etkisi bulunmaktadır. Türk Fiz T›p Re hab Derg

Construction industry is seen to be able to play a bigger role into a sustainable society by offering sustainable construction. As the premier construction material across the world, concrete has a major determining role on the effects, good or bad, of construction on the environment, meanwhile the formwork system is one of the important construction methods in building construction, which eventually will lead to more sustainable construction. In this context, this study focuses on the importance of the formwork system and its influence on achieving sustainable construction. The study aims to identify the basic sustainability objectives that considered responsive to formwork system. Using questionnaire survey distributed among construction experts, the economic category had been selected as the most important factor that considered respond to the formwork system, and the environmental category comes second while social comes the third. Furthermore, fifty percent of the respondents agree that type of formwork system effect on the sustainability of the construction project and about forty percent was moderate about it. Determination the objectives of sustainability that respond to the formwork system, which covers all activities and processes related to the formwork system can assist developers and others stakeholders to evaluate the performance of the system in order to make enhancement to the system.

Environmental aspect is one of the important criteria that define and determine sustainability performance for concrete formwork system. This study is aimed to compare the performance of the most common types of formwork system Conventional Formwork & Steel Formwork System in responding to environment category of sustainability development using questionnaire survey distributed among construction experts. The steel formwork system gets 11.5 score points while conventional formwork collects 7.8 points of total 19.4 score can be achieved. Overall steel formwork performance surpasses the conventional formwork while their score for formwork reusable element was adjacent with only 0.5 score difference meantime steel formwork had override conventional formwork in impact on local environment element. Generally steel formwork system may conceder as more environment friendly than conventional formwork especially in waste generation and using renewable material.

As the premier construction material across the world, concrete has a major determining role on the effects, good or bad, of construction on the environment, meanwhile the formwork system is one of the important construction methods in building construction, which eventually will lead to more sustainable construction. This study is about the sustainability elements that respond to formwork system and their contribution to the main factors of sustainability using questionnaire survey distributed among construction experts. The economic factor had the most contribution to sustainability performance of formwork system; the environmental factors come second and at final come the social factors. Furthermore, the economic factor had seven elements effect formwork system performance and the environmental factor include six elements while social factor had only three elements.