Conducting Polymer Based Nanogenerators

Mechanical energy is more easily accessible in nature, and in city life than other energy types. The water is a stream of high activity, tree branches that the wind sway, a bridge over which vehicles pass, joint movement of a human and the pressure applied to the floor periodically is actually a source of waste mechanical energy. For many years, energy conversion process has been industrially carried out in a large amount of mechanical energy such as wind energy, hydraulic energy. In recent years, research has focused on nano-generators to conversion and utilization of waste energy in smaller quantities.Gerek doğada, gerekse şehir hayatında mekanik enerjiye diğer enerji türlerine kıyasla daha kolay ulaşılabilmektedir. Suyun yüksek debide aktığı bir akarsu yatağı, rüzgârın salladığı ağaç dalları, üzerinden araçların geçtiği bir köprü, yürüyen bir insanın eklem hareketleri ve zemine p eriyodik olarak uyguladığı basınç aslında birer atık mekanik enerji kaynağıdırlar. Rüzgar enerjisi, hidrolik enerji gibi büyük miktarlarda mekanik enerji sağlanabilen mecralarda uzun yıllardır enerji dönüşüm işlemi endüstriyel olarak gerçekleştirilmektedir. Son yıllarda daha küçük miktarlarda atık enerjinin dönüşümü ve kullanıma sunulması için nanojeneratörler üzerine araştırmalar yoğunlaşmıştır

COVID-19 infection in pregnancy: A single-center experience in Rize in the Eastern Black Sea Region

Aim: In this study, it was aimed to share the clinical experiences of mothers and their babies (perinatal, natal) who encountered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during pregnancy. Material and Methods: The study was carried out retrospectively, 62 pregnant individuals were diagnosed with the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Demographic characteristics, clinical course, laboratory and radiological findings and clinical results of the baby were evaluated by examining electronic and file records. Results: The average age of the 62 pregnant women included in the study was 29.8 +/- 4.7 (19-42) years, and the average gestational week at the time of admission was 28.5 +/- 10.4 (5-40) weeks. More than half of the patients (80,6%) on admission were in their third trimester. The most common initial symptoms were cough (45.2%), myalgia (43.5%),) fever (21%). In total, 15 of the pregnant women had evidence of COVID-19 pneumonia in lung involvement. The PCR test results of all pregnant women were positive. There were three cases admitted to the intensive care unit, one of whom was due to gestational diabetes. No maternal mortality was recorded. One gestation ended in a miscarriage and two women gave birth prematurely. One stillbirth occurred at the 33h week of gestation. Among 22 neonates, two were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Neonatal mortality, congenital malformation, and mother- to- child transmission were not observed in newborns. Discussion: The results of our study suggest that the clinical course of COVID-19 infection in pregnant women was mostly asymptomatic/mild

Nanofiber mat-based highly compact piezoelectric-triboelectric hybrid nanogenerators

Studies on energy generation devices for necessary energy needs have been an increasing trend all over the world as the kinds and quantities of consumer gadgets have increased. Researchers have been studying nanogenerators for the last 15 years in response to this demand. The three main reasons for these studies are increased output power, application to consumer items, and mechanical stability. Hybrid nanogenerators, on the other hand, are a method of combining at least two energy conversion mechanisms, hence reducing the need for a single conversion mechanism. In this context, while triboelectric-piezoelectric combination hybrid nanogenerators are the most popular hybrid nanogenerator class, they have several drawbacks, such as non-compact and unstable structures. As a result, for the first time, a small hybrid polymer-nanofiberbased hybrid nanogenerator concept with high output voltage and current is disclosed in this study. A hybrid nanofibrous structure was created using an electrospinning apparatus with double and triple nozzles. As a result of the periodic-compression test, the resulting nanogenerators produced a maximum voltage density of 5350 V/m2 and a current density of 5454 A/m2. By hand tapping, the resulting master unit was able to light up 119 LEDs and charge a commercial capacitor up to 0.9 V

Polianilin ile fonksiyonelleştirilmiş karbon nanotüp/pdms nanokompozitlerin dielektrik özellikleri

In recent years, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have emerged as materials that are often used in the preparation of polymer nanocomposites with conductive or advanced dielectric properties due to their unique properties including high temperature and electrical conductivity, which allows the production of very light and robust materials with a very high length-to-diameter ratio. However, during the preparation of polymeric nanocomposites with these materials, some problems are encountered. One of the major problems is that after preparing these conductive materials or adding them into the polymer, they tend to aggregate, forming agglomerate, due to their conductive structures. Therefore, in this study, firstly, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were functionalized with conductive form of polyaniline (PANI) and subsequently, the poly (dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) polymer nanocomposite films with different concentrations of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes were prepared. Then, the structural, morphological, electrical and dielectric properties of the films were characterized. As a result, with the addition of only 1.5% PANI-CNT, the dielectric constant of PDMS was increased by 47-fold at 1 Hz. The dielectric films like presented here can be used in capacitors, flexible electronics, dielectric elastomers and artificial muscle applications.Son yıllarda, yüksek uzunluk/çap oranı ile hafif ve sağlam kompozitler hazırlanmasını mümkün kılan karbon nanotüpler, yüksek ısıl ve elektriksel iletkenlikleri gibi benzersiz özelliklerinden dolayı iletkenlik veya dielektrik özellikleri yüksek polimer nanokompozitlerin üretiminde kullanılan bir malzeme olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. Bununla birlikte, bu malzemelerle polimerik nanokompozitlerin hazırlanması sırasında bazı problemlerle karşılaşılmaktadır. En büyük sorunlardan biri, bu iletken malzemeleri hazırladıktan veya polimere ekledikten sonra, iletken yapıları nedeniyle topaklanma, topak oluşturma eğilimi göstermeleridir. Bu nedenle, bu çalışmada ilk olarak, çok duvarlı karbon nanotüpler (MWCNT'ler) polianilinin iletken formu (PANI) ile fonksiyonelleştirilmiştir. Ardından, farklı konsantrasyonlarda fonksiyonelleştirilmiş çok duvarlı karbon nanotüplere sahip nanokompozit poli(dimetil siloksan) (PDMS) polimer filmler hazırlanmıştır. Daha sonra ise, filmlerin yapısal, morfolojik, elektriksel ve dielektrik özellikleri karakterize edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak, sadece % 1,5 PANI-CNT ilavesiyle, PDMS'nin dielektrik sabiti 1 Hz'de 47 kat arttırılmıştır. Burada ortaya konulduğu gibi dielektrik filmler kapasitörler, esnek elektronik, dielektrik elastomer ve yapay kas uygulamalarında kullanılabilir

Corruption, Income Inequality and Poverty in Central and Eastern European Union Countries: A Panel Causality Analysis

Son yıllarda küresel servet önemli miktarda artmış, gelir dağılımı eşitsizliği ve yoksullukta düşüşler görülmüştür. Bununla birlikte hem gelir dağılımı eşitsizliği hem de yoksulluk hala ciddi boyutlarda bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışma Dumitrescu ve Hurlin (2012) panel nedensellik testini kullanarak Orta ve Doğu Avrupa bölgesindeki Avrupa Birliği geçiş ekonomilerinde 2005-2016 döneminde yolsuzluk, gelir dağılımı eşitsizliği ve yoksulluk arasındaki nedensel etkileşimi araştırmaktadır. Çalışma sonucunda yoksulluktan yolsuzluğa ve gelir dağılımı eşitsizliğinden yoksulluğa doğru tek yönlü nedensellik belirlenmiştirThe global wealth has increased considerably and decreases in income inequality and poverty have been experienced in the recent years. However, both income inequality and poverty have still stayed at critical dimensions. This study investigated the causal interaction among corruption, income inequality, and poverty in Central and Eastern European Union transition economies during 2005-2016 period by employing panel causality test of Dumistrescu and Hurlin (2012). The results revealed a one-way causality from poverty to corruption and also a one-way causality from income inequality to povert

Corruption and shadow economy in transition economies of European Union countries: a panel cointegration and causality analysis

Corruption and shadow economy are two critical problems which feed each other and pose an obstacle against the economic development of countries, especially those with weak fundamentals. Central and Eastern European countries have experienced an absolute political and economic transformation after the downfall of the Berlin Wall. This study researches the effect of corruption and rule of law on shadow economy in 11 transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe over the 2003–2015 term with panel cointegration and causality tests considering heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The cointegration coefficients revealed a complementary interplay between size of shadow economy and corruption. Furthermore, the causality analysis indicated that there was a bilateral causality between control of corruption and shadow economy in all the cross-section units. However, there was a two-way causality between rule of law and shadow economy only in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Furthermore, there was one-way causality from rule of law to shadow economy in Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. © 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

TAX AFFAIRS AND SOLUTION RECOMMENDA- TIONS IN TEXTILE SECTOR: EVIDENCE FROM USAK

Vergilendirme, firmaların karlılıkları üzerin-deki etkisi nedeniyle hem ulusal hem de ulus-lararası firmaların yatırım ve üretim kararlarınınönemli bir bileşenidir. Bu çalışmada Türkiye’detekstil sektörünün öncül yerlerinden birisi olanUşak’ta tekstil firmalarının yetkilileri ile yüz yüzegörüşme yöntemi ile tekstil sektöründeki başlıcavergi sorunları tespit edilmiş ve söz konusu so-runlara ilişkin çözüm önerileri ortaya konmuştur.Çalışma sonucunda ithalat ve işgücü üzerindeki ekvergi yükleri, hantal bürokrasi ve kayıt dışı ekono-minin yarattığı haksız rekabetin tekstil sektörününbaşlıca sorunları olduğu belirlenmiştir. Üretimi veihracatı teşvik edici yapısal vergi reformları, etkinvergi denetimi ve bürokrasi ile söz konusu sorun-ların giderilebileceği değerlendirilmektedir.Taxation is an important component of theinvestment and production decisions for bothnational and international firms due to its impacton firm profitability. In this study, we determinedthe major tax affairs in Usak, one of the leadingplaces at textile sector in Turkey, by face to facemeeting with textile firm officials and offered so-lution recommendations for the aforementionedproblems. We found that additional duties on im-port and labor, inefficient bureaucracy and unfaircompetition resulting from shadow economy. It isevaluated that the aforementioned problems canbe eliminated by structural tax reforms encoura-ging production and export, efficient tax auditingand bureaucracy

Financial Literacy and Financial Risk Tolerance of Individual Investors: Multinomial Logistic Regression Approach

Financial risk tolerance is one of the important factors affecting the financial investment decisions of individuals and institutional investors and a crucial factor of financial planning and financial counseling. It is therefore necessary to determine the major determinants of risk tolerance. In this article, we researched the impact of financial literacy level and demographic characteristics on the financial risk tolerance of the individuals in the sample of Usak University staff, using a multinomial logistic regression analysis and retrieving data through the questionnaire method. Multinomial logistic regression is an extension of binary logistic regression, allowing for three or more categories of the dependent variable. The findings of the empirical analysis reveal that financial literacy and demographic characteristics of age, gender, education, and income levels are significant determinants of financial risk tolerance. In this regard, the improvements in the financial literacy of the individuals through various education programs will probably raise the demand of financial products with different risk characteristics and in turn contribute to the development of financial sector