Biomedical subjects

Josip Azman

Publications and source records attributed to Josip Azman.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

"Marina-Trinkkur" and a few more modern-time hydrotherapeutic myths from the Kvarner region of NW Croatia.

PURPOSE: The present paper tries to address the rise and decay of the sea-water "cult" in regional health tourism in NW Croatia, concentrating upon and analysing more thoroughly the example of Marina, chemically processed sea water, an invention of Dr Géza Fodor, the Hungarian physician practicing in that part of Croatia. METHOD: The original documents and archived items related to the topic were examined. Furthermore, we investigated numerous communal bulletins and medical authorities' records of respective time. RESULTS: Our research showed that the sea-water baths, introduced thanks to the influence of balneologists (like J. Glax), and "drinking cures" (advocated by M.-J. Ortel, for instance) were surprisingly popular not only among tourists of the time, but also among the physicians that used them extensively for therapeutical purposes. These baths and "drinking cures" enriched and completed the medical offer of the resorts regardless of their sometimes dubious effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: This simple distilled sea-water preparation, advertised as a real panacea, demonstrates a paradigm that elucidates the mentality of physicians, merchants, and patients/consumers of the time.

Balneology↗

PubMed2006

Public health problems in the medieval statutes of Vinodol, Vrbnik and Senj (West Croatia).

BACKGROUND: The ancient Croatian statutes were written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The aim of this study was to seek out regulations concerning public health in the oldest medieval statutes of the towns on the northern Adriatic coast (W Croatia). METHODS: All translated text editions of the statutes of the three towns were examined. The statutes were written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. RESULTS: The research of the materials revealed the examples of direct and indirect ways of protecting public health. Regulations on keeping towns clean and the rules for dealing with animal products were found. Additionally, witches and fortunetellers were found to be treated as a negative force and defined as the embodiment of evil: they were thus considered to be heavily connected to illness and misfortune. CONCLUSION: The aforementioned rules are not only important from the historical point of view, but also as a reflection of people's awareness of public health as a condition of survival and the progress of the community as a whole. Furthermore, since those statutes were created from people's customs that were to eventually become a law, they show substantial progress in medical history for that particular part of Croatia.

Croatia↗

PubMed2006

[Correlation and regression].

Correlation and regression are statistical methods that help us determine interactions of variables. Both are being used in statistical analysis of basic and clinical research. Correlation (r) is a measure of linear relationship between two numerical measurements made on the same set of subjects and it is represented by correlation coefficient. Values of correlation coefficient range between -1 and 1. Pearson's and Spearman's coefficients of correlation are the most often used correlation coefficients. Correlation can be linear and non-linear. We calculate the significance of correlation (P) in an effort to determine significance of correlation coefficient. Regression is a statistical method that allows us to predict values of one variable from another. The simplest regression is linear regression. The success of regression equation is valued by analysis of residuals. Multiple regression is used to predict one variable from several known variables.

Factor Analysis, Statistical↗

PubMed2005

Prevalence of plagiarism among medical students.

AIM: To determine the prevalence of plagiarism among medical students in writing essays. METHODS: During two academic years, 198 second year medical students attending Medical Informatics course wrote an essay on one of four offered articles. Two of the source articles were available in an electronic form and two in printed form. Two (one electronic and one paper article) were considered less complex and the other two more complex. The essays were examined using plagiarism detection software "WCopyfind," which counted the number of matching phrases with six or more words. Plagiarism rate, expressed as the percentage of the plagiarized text, was calculated as a ratio of the absolute number of matching words and the total number of words in the essay. RESULTS: Only 17 (9%) of students did not plagiarize at all and 68 (34%) plagiarized less than 10% of the text. The average plagiarism rate (% of plagiarized text) was 19% (5-95% percentile=0-88). Students who were strictly warned not to plagiarize had a higher total word count in their essays than students who were not warned (P=0.002) but there was no difference between them in the rate of plagiarism. Students with higher grades in Medical Informatics exam plagiarized less than those with lower grades (P=0.015). Gender, subject source, and complexity had no influence on the plagiarism rate. CONCLUSIONS: Plagiarism in writing essays is common among medical students. An explicit warning is not enough to deter students from plagiarism. Detection software can be used to trace and evaluate the rate of plagiarism in written student assays.

Adult↗