Celtek clay as sorbent for separation-preconcentration of metal ions from environmental samples

The sorption conditions including pH of the aqueous solution, sample volume, etc., on Celtek clay of copper(II), cadmium(II), lead(II), chromium(III), nickel(II) and cobalt(II) ions from environmental samples has been studied. The effects of electrolytes as matrix on the preconcentration were also investigated with the recoveries >95%. The 3 sigma detection limits for copper, cadmium, lead, chromium, nickel and cobalt ions were found to be 0.25, 0.32, 0.73, 0.45, 0.50 and 0.41 microg/l, respectively. The relative standard deviation was <10% for the determination of analytes. The procedure was validated by analysis of a NRCC-SLRS 4 Riverine Water, SRM 1573a Tomato leaves and IAEA 336 Lichen standard reference materials. The developed method was successively utilized for the determination of Cu(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), Cr(III), Ni(II) and Co(II) in various samples including natural waters, wheat and human hair by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) with satisfactorily results (recoveries>95% and R.S.D.'s<10%).     

Prioritization methodology of dangerous substances for water quality monitoring with scarce data

Monitoring and control of dangerous substances discharged into receiving waters have attracted more attention lately. Since it is not possible to analyze every single substance, a prioritization methodology is needed for the selection of those to be monitored. Existing well-developed models require significant amount of data for reliable outcomes. This paper presents a methodology to prioritize the dangerous substances having adverse effects on freshwaters in Turkey, where data are scarce. Such a methodology will also serve as a solid model for other countries with limited background data. The adopted methodology enabled the elimination of chemicals to generate a candidate list composed of 608 substances among more than 5000 substances. Further screening and prioritization were conducted using different assessment methods (i.e., Total Hazard Value, Total Impact Value, Combined Monitoring-based, and Modelling-based Priority Setting) to obtain a proposed Final Candidate Specific Pollutants List of 150 dangerous substances. The proposed Candidate National Pollutant List of Turkey was established by combining 45 priority pollutants of the European Union with a list of candidate specific pollutants. According to the outcomes of this study, monitoring and controlling of 195 dangerous substances in freshwaters are recommended. Further detailed studies should be conducted in order to observe the actual levels of these dangerous substances in freshwaters followed by a review of the monitoring list accordingly. Moreover, further revisions might be required in the proposed list due to some possible versatile conditions in terms of sampling points (i.e., change in the location of industries).     

Using dairy ingredients to alter texture of foods: Implications based on oral processing considerations

Food quality is directly linked to the food's appearance, texture and flavor. All three components must be in harmony for the food to be considered delicious. Understanding how various textures can be designed requires a comprehensive approach of evaluating food structure, oral processing and sensory evaluation. Oral processing considers the physiological processes in first bite, mastication and swallowing. Sensory stimuli during oral processing are used to determine the acceptance of texture. Recent research has focused on how milk proteins can be used to create desirable textures. Whey protein–polysaccharide mixtures were used to show how microstructure can be manipulated to produce a range of textures and control water release. The importance of microstructure in determining a variety of texture terms was demonstrated in whey protein emulsion gels. Finally, fat content in Cheddar cheese was shown to be critical to producing a desirable breakdown pattern. These and other applications will be discussed.     

Knowledge,attitudes and self-reported practices of food service staff regarding food hygiene in Edirne,Turkey

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices among food service staff with regards to food hygiene in hospitals in Edirne, Turkey, and to provide baseline data for implementing HACCP in hospital food services by carrying out a questionnaire by a face-to-face interview. The current study shows that food service staff in Edirne hospitals have insufficient knowledge regarding the basics of food hygiene. And also revealed a discrepancy between attitudes and practices towards food hygiene. There is an immediate need for continuous training among food handlers regarding safe food handling practices.     

Marble mosaic tiling automation with a four degrees of freedom Cartesian robot

The art of mosaic has arisen thousands of years ago. Despite all those years and all the attention it has received till today, mosaic tiling is still being carried out manually and mosaic tiling processes have never been changed except the tool and material developments.     

Inferring Phylogenetic Trees Using Answer Set Programming

We describe the reconstruction of a phylogeny for a set of taxa, with a character-based cladistics approach, in a declarative knowledge representation formalism, and show how to use computational methods of answer set programming to generate conjectures about the evolution of the given taxa. We have applied this computational method in two domains: historical analysis of languages and historical analysis of parasite-host systems. In particular, using this method, we have computed some plausible phylogenies for Chinese dialects, for Indo-European language groups, and for Alcataenia species. Some of these plausible phylogenies are different from the ones computed by other software. Using this method, we can easily describe domain-specific information (e.g., temporal and geographical constraints), and thus prevent the reconstruction of some phylogenies that are not plausible. This paper is a revised and extended version of [3].     

Immobilization of albumin on magnetite nanoparticles

The magnetite (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles were prepared by the co-precipitation of ferrous and ferric salts with NH₄OH, and then modified with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) by silanization reaction and subsequent reaction with glutaraldehyde (GA) to obtain functional groups on their surface. The influence of different terminated groups on protein binding was studied with bare and modified magnetite nanoparticles. Amine terminated magnetite nanoparticles were shown the highest binding ability for immobilization process compared to Fe₃O₄ NPs and GA bonded NPs. This binding ability was shown by using sodium dodecyl polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis technique (SDS-PAGE). Albumin attached magnetite nanoparticles were also examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).     

Non-Cytokine Protein Profile of the Mesenchymal Stem Cell Secretome That Regulates the Androgen Production Pathway

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine and metabolic disorder in reproductive-aged women, and it typically involves elevated androgen levels. Recently, it has been reported that human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) can regulate androgen synthesis pathways. However, the details of the mechanism are still unclear. hBM-MSC-derived secreted factors (the secretome) are promising sources of cell-based therapy as they consist of various types of proteins. It is thus important to know which proteins interact with disease-implicated biomolecules. This work aimed to investigate which secretome components contain the key factor that inhibits testosterone synthesis. In this study, we fractionated hBM-MSC-conditioned media into three fractions based on their molecular weights and found that, of the three fractions, one had the ability to inhibit the androgen-producing genes efficiently. We also analyzed the components of this fraction and established a protein profile of the hBM-MSC secretome, which was shown to inhibit androgen synthesis. Our study describes a set of protein components present in the hBM-MSC secretome that can be used therapeutically to treat PCOS by regulating androgen production for the first time.