Study on the behavior of the trace metal and macro minerals in Mytilus galloprovincialis as a bioindicator species: the case of Marmara Sea, Turkey

Sea food is a major source of animal protein. Marine foods are very rich sources of mineral components. The total content of minerals in the raw flesh of marine fish and invertebrates is in the range of 0.6–1.5% wet weight. The contents of Na, K, Ca, Mg and P are up to 1 mg/100 g, whereas those of Fe, Zn, I are less than 1 mg/100 g. Mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were investigated for macro and trace element composition throughout the year. Ranges of moisture, ash, protein and fat contents were 79.76–87.46 g/100 g, 1.06–2.06 g/100 g, 7.28–12.65 g/100 g and 0.33–3.49 g/100 g, respectively. While the highest protein and fat values were found in the summer (July–August), the highest moisture and ash contents were found in the winter (December–January). The contents of highest Na, K, Ca were found in the summer. Cadmium, lead and copper were found to be below the legislative limits throughout year. High levels of mercury were found in January and October. It should be discussed whether mussel may provide an alternative source of mineral for healthy nutrition.     

A multinomial logit analysis of risk factors influencing road traffic injury severities in the Erzurum and Kars Provinces of Turkey

A retrospective cross-sectional study is conducted analysing 11,771 traffic accidents reported by the police between January 2008 and December 2013 which are classified into three injury severity categories: fatal, injury, and no injury. Based on this classification, a multinomial logit analysis is performed to determine the risk factors affecting the severity of traffic injuries. The estimation results reveal that the following factors increase the probability of fatal injuries: drivers over the age of 65; primary-educated drivers; single-vehicle accidents; accidents occurring on state routes, highways or provincial roads; and the presence of pedestrian crosswalks. The results also indicate that accidents involving cars or private vehicles or those occurring during the evening peak, under clear weather conditions, on local city streets or in the presence of traffic lights decrease the probability of fatal injuries. This study comprises the most comprehensive database ever created for a Turkish sample. This study is also the first attempt to use an unordered response model to determine risk factors influencing the severity of traffic injuries in Turkey.     

Comparison of the mechanical and biological properties of self-adhering materials

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to compare the Vickers hardness numbers (VHNs), roughness numbers (RNs) and biological compatibility of glass carbomer (Glass Fill), resin-modified glass ionomer (Fuji II LC) and self-adhering flowable composite (Vertise Flow) materials. Materials and methods: Disc-shaped specimens of test materials (n = 15/group) were prepared, and VHNs and RNs were determined after 24 h. A direct contact test was used for cytotoxicity evaluation. Cell viability was measured for 24 h post-exposition with a photometric test (MTT assay; n = 16). Data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance with a post hoc Tukey’s test, the Kruskal–Wallis test and the Mann–Whitney U-test (p < 0.05). Results: Fuji II LC had the highest VHN. The VHN of Fuji II LC differed significantly from those of the other materials (p < 0.05). The RNs of Fuji II and Glass Fill were higher than that of Vertise Flow (p < 0.05). The self-adhering materials were not significantly cytotoxic compared with the control group (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The materials tested in this study showed a similar lack of cytotoxicity. The VHN of Fuji II LC was the highest, and the RN of Vertise Flow was the lowest.     

Nucleotide degradation products of gamma‐irradiated sea bream (Sparus aurata) stored in ice

Nucleotide degradation products of irradiated sea bream stored up to 19 days in ice were investigated. Irradiation had significant effect on the nucleotide concentrations in sea bream muscle (P < 0.05). The results showed that the highest value of inosine monophosphate (IMP) was observed in irradiated sea bream at 5 kGy, followed by at 2.5 kGy. Initial inosine (INO) concentration in irradiated sea bream at 5 kGy was 4.26 μmoles g^?1, which reached maximum value of 8.83 μmoles g^?1 when fish completely spoiled (19 days). When the fish reached the limit of acceptability, the mean values of K, Ki, H and G were 86.8%, 90.3%, 59.8% and 213.9% for unirradiated sea bream, 85.2%, 87.8%, 56.8% and 197.8% for irradiated sea bream at 2.5 kGy and 88.4%, 90.9%, 57.8%, 211.5% for irradiated sea bream at 5 kGy, respectively. The results of this study indicated that nucleotide degradation was more rapid in unirradiated sea bream than those irradiated. K, Ki, H and G value in irradiated fish can be used as a freshness index because there is a good linear relationship between values and storage time of fish.     

A snapshot of geothermal energy potential and utilization in Turkey

Turkey is one of the countries with significant potential in geothermal energy. It is estimated that if Turkey utilizes all of her geothermal potential, she can meet 14% of her total energy need (heat and electricity) from geothermal sources. Therefore, today geothermal energy is an attractive option in Turkey to replace fossil fuels. Besides, increase in negative effects of fossil fuels on the environment has forced many countries, including Turkey, to use renewable energy sources. Also, Turkey is an energy importing country; more than two-thirds of her energy requirement is supplied by imports. In this context, geothermal energy appears to be one of the most efficient and effective solutions for sustainable energy development and environmental pollution prevention in Turkey. Since geothermal energy will be used more and more in the future, its current potential, usage, and assessment in Turkey is the focus of the present study. The paper not only presents a review of the potential and utilization of the geothermal energy in Turkey but also provides some guidelines for policy makers.     

Early prostate cancer diagnosis by using artificial neural networks and support vector machines

The aim of this study is to design a classifier based expert system for early diagnosis of the organ in constraint phase to reach informed decision making without biopsy by using some selected features. The other purpose is to investigate a relationship between BMI (body mass index), smoking factor, and prostate cancer. The data used in this study were collected from 300 men (100: prostate adenocarcinoma, 200: chronic prostatism or benign prostatic hyperplasia). Weight, height, BMI, PSA (prostate specific antigen), Free PSA, age, prostate volume, density, smoking, systolic, diastolic, pulse, and Gleason score features were used and independent sample t-test was applied for feature selection. In order to classify related data, we have used following classifiers; scaled conjugate gradient (SCG), Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS), and Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) training algorithms of artificial neural networks (ANN) and linear, polynomial, and radial based kernel functions of support vector machine (SVM). It was determined that smoking is a factor increases the prostate cancer risk whereas BMI is not affected the prostate cancer. Since PSA, volume, density, and smoking features were to be statistically significant, they were chosen for classification. The proposed system was designed with polynomial based kernel function, which had the best performance (accuracy: 79%). In Turkish Family Health System, family physician to whom patients are applied firstly, would contribute to extract the risk map of illness and direct patients to correct treatments by using expert system such proposed.     

Research on ethanol production and use from sugar beet in Turkey

Emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO₂, CO, CH₄ and NO_X from fossil fuel use are implicated in climate change. The use of bioethanol is one means to reduce fossil fuel use and emissions of greenhouse gases. This study investigated research to produce ethanol from sugar beet and use as fuel in Turkey. The calculated demand for bioethanol amounted to some 220,000 m³ where a 5% ethanol mix in petrol was used. Turkey has the potential to produce 30 million ton of sugar beet, which is sufficient to meet the bioethanol demand.     

A Novel Grounded Inductor Realization Using a Minimum Number of Active and Passive Components

In this study, we present a new topology for realizing a grounded inductor employing only a single current conveyor, called a negative‐type modified inverting second‐generation current conveyor (MICCII‐), and a minimum number of passive components, two resistors, and one capacitor. The non‐ideality effects of the MICCII‐on a simulated inductor are investigated. To demonstrate the performance of the presented inductance simulator, we use it to construct a third order Butterworth high‐pass filter and a parallel resonant circuit. Simulation results are given to confirm the theoretical analysis.     

Novel Voltage-Mode All-Pass Filter Based on Using DVCCs

In this paper, a novel design for realizing a voltage-mode (VM) all-pass filter utilizing two differential voltage current conveyors (DVCCs) is proposed. Also, the suggested filter uses a canonical number of passive elements (one grounded capacitor and one resistor) without requiring any element matching condition. The proposed filter has high input and low output impedances, which make it suitable for cascading. The effects of the nonidealities of the DVCCs on the proposed design are investigated. As an application, a quadrature oscillator is designed using the proposed VM all-pass filter and an integrator. The proposed filter and oscillator circuits are simulated using the SPICE simulation program to confirm the theory.     

A power-adaptable A/D converter with integrated data compression

A novel adaptable analog/digital converter (ADC) that combines analog/digital conversion and entropy-coding for integrated data compression and low-power operation is reported. The converter has high flexibility of operation in terms of adaptable resolution, conversion rate and input signal statistics. This feature allows to adaptively react to changes of the situation and to put the device in each case into the optimum configuration. The ADC has been realized in a 0.6 μm CMOS technology with a peak resolution of 12 bit and 200 kS/s maximum sampling rate. A comprehensive power model of the converter is presented that reflects precisely the power consumption determined from experiments. The model is very useful for optimizing the converter configuration in the node of a wireless sensor network for specific situations. A feasible real-life application is demonstrated.