Almost all family physicians used smartphone and/or tablet PC during daily practice, and the reason of use was commonly for communication and Internet purposes. Usage during working hours was limited, but medical apps were perceived mainly positively for receiving medical information via Internet. Looking at the medical apps' acceptability scale, participants were in agreement with the security, cost, contents' quality, ease of use, support, ease of finding, ease of accessing and motivation to use medical applications.

In this study, stable isotope signatures (δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and δD) of both tea leaves and tea infusions were investigated to identify the geographical origin of Turkish domestic and imported tea samples. Sixteen domestic tea samples collected from different locations in the Black Sea Region, which produces almost 100% of tea in Turkey, and 11 imported tea samples (Kenya, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and China) purchased from importers were studied. δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and δD in the samples were determined using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IR-MS). δ 13 C in the samples ranged from −29.18 ± 0.01 to −25.7 ± 0.2, while δ 15 N ranged between 1.1 ± 0.2 and 5.2 ± 0.8. However, δD in the samples were found to be in the range from 56.5 ± 0.3 to 72 ± 1. The classifications of the tea samples into domestic and imported tea samples were achieved with 100% accuracy using multivariate statistical analyses (principal component analysis, PCA, and hierarchical cluster analysis, HCA). In conclusion, the domestic tea samples had a distinctive isotopic fingerprint and the isotopic ratios used in the study can be significant predictors in determination of the geographical source of Turkish tea.

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Background: Spasticity is a motor impairment due to lesions in the brain and spinal cord. Despite being a well-known problem, difficulties remain in the assessment of the condition. The electrophysiological and kinesiological characteristics of the patellar pendulum changes during the movement triggered by the patellar T reflex could be used to assess spasticity. Methods: Features of the patellar pendulum during the patellar T reflex were considered using a goniometric approach in spastic patients evaluated with the Ashworth scale. Medium and late latency responses in the rectus and biceps femoris muscles were examined electrophysiologically. For each pendulum, the maximum angle extension during an oscillation of the knee joint, maximal extension time, angular velocities of extensions of the knee joint and frequency of motion due to the patellar reflex were calculated. The damping of the amplitude in the pendulum was calculated. Results: The spasticity group consisted of 65 patients (38 males and 27 females) with a mean age of 47.6 ± 14.0 years. The normal control group consisted of 25 individuals (19 males and six females) with a mean age of 32.1 ± 10 years. The biceps and rectus femoris long latency late responses were not observed in the normal cases. The biceps femoris medium latency response was observed only in 24 % of healthy individuals; conversely, late responses were observed in 84 % of patients. Activation of the antagonist muscles at a certain level of spasticity created a notching phenomenon. Amplitude of the reflex response and mean angular velocity of the first oscillation present in a dichotomic nature in the spasticity groups. Frequency of the first pendular oscillation increased with the increase of the Ashworth scale, while the damping ratio decreased with increasing scale. The Ashworth scale showed a correlation with the damping ratio. The damping ratio strongly distinguished the spastic subgroups and showed a strong negative correlation with the Ashworth scale. Conclusions: The Ashworth scale presents a good correlation with kinesiological parameters, but it is only possible to differentiate normal and spastic cases with electrophysiologic parameters. Furthermore, the notching phenomenon could be evaluated as a determinant of spasticity.