Hydrothermal synthesis of nanostructured TiO2 particles and characterization of their photocatalytic antimicrobial activity

Nanostructured titania particles were synthesized by using hydrothermal processing and the photocatalytic antimicrobial activities were characterized. Both sol-gel synthesized and commercial TiO2 (anatase) samples were processed with two step hydrothermal treatments, under alkaline and neutral conditions. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images showed that alkaline treatment yields nanofibers and lamellar structured particles from the commercial anatase and sol-gel synthesized samples respectively. Further treatment of nanofibers and nanostructured lamellar particles with distilled water results with crystal growth and the formation of nano structured bipyramidal crystalline particles. The photocatalytic antimicrobial activities of the samples were determined against Escherichia coil under irradiation. It was observed that the samples treated under alkaline conditions have improved activity than the original anatase samples. Limited activity and resulting time lag in bacterial inactivation were observed for hydrothermally treated samples with distilled water. However, a post treatment comprising the UV irradiation in aqueous conditions enhanced the photocatalytic activity.     

Creating a high-quality wool-oriented Turkish merino herd and investigation of mechanical and dyeability properties of fabrics produced from Turkish merino in comparison with Australian merino

Today, the need for quality wool suitable for worsted fabric production in the world is mainly met by Australian merino wool. In Turkey, which has a significant sheep population, in addition to domestic breeds, approximately 10% of the total sheep population (around four million head) is composed of merino cross breeds. However, the fleece quality is far from meeting Australian merino wool standards. Therefore, the aim of this study is to ensure a merino herd with high-quality wool in Turkey. For this aim, by carrying out field studies in the Thrace region of Turkey where Turkish Merino sheep are widely bred, sheep with fleece that can meet the demands of the worsted industry were determined. As a result of field studies in which thousands of sheep were examined, it was determined that 43 female and 10 male sheep had fleece that would meet these standards. Then the breeders of the sheep, which had quality fleece, were persuaded and these sheep were purchased, and “Turkey's wool-oriented Turkish (Karacabey) Merino Herd” consisting of 30 sheep and three rams was formed in the farm of Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University. In the second part of this study, a 100% wool fabric produced by using Australian merino was taken as a reference and it was aimed to produce the same fabric from Turkish merino wool. For this aim, the wool-oriented Turkish Merino herd, which was bred at the university farm for 1 year, was shorn in May 2022. Then, Turkish and Australian merino wools were first converted into worsted yarn and then into woven fabric. The results of mechanical (tensile strength, pilling, abrasion resistance, felting shrinkage, Hofmann dimensional change, bending stiffness) and dyeability (dye-uptake, CIE L*a*b* and colour yield (K/S) values; washing, rubbing and light fastness values) properties of fabrics produced from Turkish and Australian merino wool is presented.     

Titanium-Based Nanoarchitectures for Sonodynamic Therapy-Involved Multimodal Treatments

Sonodynamic therapy (SDT) has considerably revolutionized the healthcare sector as a viable noninvasive therapeutic procedure. It employs a combination of low-intensity ultrasound and chemical entities, known as a sonosensitizer, to produce cytotoxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) for cancer and antimicrobial therapies. With nanotechnology, several unique nanoplatforms are introduced as a sonosensitizers, including, titanium-based nanomaterials, thanks to their high biocompatibility, catalytic efficiency, and customizable physicochemical features. Additionally, developing titanium-based sonosensitizers facilitates the integration of SDT with other treatment modalities (for example, chemotherapy, chemodynamic therapy, photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, and immunotherapy), hence increasing overall therapeutic results. This review summarizes the most recent developments in cancer therapy and tissue engineering using titanium nanoplatforms mediated SDT. The synthesis strategies and biosafety aspects of Titanium-based nanoplatforms for SDT are also discussed. Finally, various challenges and prospects for its further development and potential clinical translation are highlighted.     

An Ordinal Multi-Dimensional Classification (OMDC) for Predictive Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance is a type of condition-based maintenance that assesses the equipment's states and estimates its failure probability and when maintenance should be performed. Although machine learning techniques have been frequently implemented in this area, the existing studies disregard to the natural order between the target attribute values of the historical sensor data. Thus, these methods cause losing the inherent order of the data that positively affects the prediction performances. To deal with this problem, a novel approach, named Ordinal Multi-dimensional Classification (OMDC), is proposed for estimating the conditions of a hydraulic system's four components by taking into the natural order of class values. To demonstrate the prediction ability of the proposed approach, eleven different multi-dimensional classification algorithms (traditional Binary Relevance (BR), Classifier Chain (CC), Bayesian Classifier Chain (BCC), Monte Carlo Classifier Chain (MCC), Probabilistic Classifier Chain (PCC), Classifier Dependency Network (CDN), Classifier Trellis (CT), Classifier Dependency Trellis (CDT), Label Powerset (LP), Pruned Sets (PS), and Random k-Labelsets (RAKEL)) were implemented using the Ordinal Class Classifier (OCC) algorithm. Besides, seven different classification algorithms (Multilayer Perceptron (MLP), Support Vector Machine (SVM), k-Nearest Neighbour (kNN), Decision Tree (C4.5), Bagging, Random Forest (RF), and Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost)) were chosen as base learners for the OCC algorithm. The experimental results present that the proposed OMDC approach using binary relevance multi-dimensional classification methods predicts the conditions of a hydraulic system's multiple components with high accuracy. Also, it is clearly seen from the results that the OMDC models that utilize ensemble-based classification algorithms give more reliable prediction performances with an average Hamming score of 0.853 than the others that use traditional algorithms as base learners.     

Information theoretic evaluation of Lorentzian,Gaussian, Voigt,and symmetric alpha-stable models of reversible transverse relaxation in cervical cancer in vivo at 3 T

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - To better characterize cervical cancer at 3 T. MRI transverse relaxation patterns hold valuable biophysical information...     

Comparison of the effects of oven- and microwave-roasting on the physicochemical properties and bioactive compounds of tomato seeds and oils

The tomato processing industry generates a significant amount of a by-product (pomace), which is a mixture of peels and seeds. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of conventional oven-roasting (at 120°C, 150°C, and 180°C for 25 min) and innovative microwave-roasting (at 240, 388, and 536 W for 3 min) pretreatments on the physicochemical properties, fatty acid profiles, bioactive contents, and aroma profiles of tomato seeds and their hexane-extracted oils. The total flavonoids contents (TFCs) of the seeds decreased from 258.40 to 141.20 mg quercetin equivalent (QE) per kg after roasting. All roasting treatments improved the extractability of both α- and γ-tocopherols. The amounts of total tocopherols in the seeds increased from 917.61 to 1256.25 mg kg^–1 after pretreatment. Luteolin was found to be the most abundant phenolic in seed oils, increasing from 10.68 to 91.72 mg kg^–1, followed by quercetin, ferulic acid, and catechin. Within each roasting technique, the ones treated at 150°C and 338 W yielded the oils with the highest concentrations of aroma compounds, 418 and 92 mg kg^–1, respectively. The detrimental effect of microwave-roasting on these compounds was more pronounced. In conclusion, microwave-roasting at shorter times than conventional roasting produced tomato seed oils with well-preserved bioactive components and few unfavorable changes. Industrial relevance: Conventional oven-roasting has been widely applied to oilseeds to improve oil yield as well as to obtain desirable sensory characteristics of extracted oils for years. However, longer roasting times may also cause detrimental changes in the properties of oils. On the other side, microwave-assisted applications as an emerging technology provide homogenous and well-controlled heat distribution, shorter treatment times, and considerable energy savings for the processing of various foods. Microwave technology has been easily scaled up and is currently employed for sterilization, drying, pasteurization, precooking, and extraction by the food and chemistry industries. Therefore, the present research suggests the use of microwaves for comparatively short roasting times to produce edible oils with enhanced physicochemical attributes and bioactives contents, and well-maintained sensory properties. This promising innovative technology has the potential to be industrialized for a cost-effective seed roasting process.