Investigating of Mechanical Properties of Mortars Based on Fly Ash and Blast Furnace Slag Activated with Alkali

Alkali activated mortars obtained from granulated blast furnace slag and fly ash were used instead of Portland cement by activating with alkali. Sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide were activated blast furnace slag and fly ash. Mortar samples were prepared 40x40x160 mm as prismatic samples according to TS EN 196-1 and they were cured at room temperature. Compressive and flexural strength of the mortar samples including blast furnace slag and fly ash were investigated by experimenting

Large N limit of SO(N) gauge theory of fermions and bosons

In this paper we study the large N_c limit of SO(N_c) gauge theory coupled to a Majorana field and a real scalar field in 1+1 dimensions extending ideas of Rajeev. We show that the phase space of the resulting classical theory of bilinears, which are the mesonic operators of this theory, is OSp_1(H|H )/U(H_+|H_+), where H|H refers to the underlying complex graded space of combined one-particle states of fermions and bosons and H_+|H_+ corresponds to the positive frequency subspace. In the begining to simplify our presentation we discuss in detail the case with Majorana fermions only (the purely bosonic case is treated in our earlier work). In the Majorana fermion case the phase space is given by O_1(H)/U(H_+), where H refers to the complex one-particle states and H_+ to its positive frequency subspace. The meson spectrum in the linear approximation again obeys a variant of the 't Hooft equation. The linear approximation to the boson/fermion coupled case brings an additonal bound state equation for mesons, which consists of one fermion and one boson, again of the same form as the well-known 't Hooft equation.Comment: 27 pages, no figure

Perspective of turkish medicine students on cancer, cancer treatments, palliative care, and oncologists (ares study): A study of the palliative care working committee of the turkish oncology group (TOG)

Cancer is one of the most common causes of death all over the World (Rahib et al. in Cancer Res 74(11):2913–2921, 2014; Silbermann et al. in Ann Oncol 23(Suppl 3):iii15–iii28, 2012). It is crucial to diagnose this disease early by effective screening methods and also it is very important to acknowledge the community on various aspects of this disease such as the treatment methods and palliative care. Not only the oncologists but every medical doctor should be educated well in dealing with cancer patients. Previous studies suggested various opinions on the level of oncology education in medical schools (Pavlidis et al. in Ann Oncol 16(5):840–841, 2005). In this study, the perspectives of medical students on cancer, its treatment, palliative care, and the oncologists were analyzed in relation to their educational status. A multicenter survey analysis was performed on a total of 4224 medical school students that accepted to enter this study in Turkey. After the questions about the demographical characteristics of the students, their perspectives on the definition, diagnosis, screening, and treatment methods of cancer and their way of understanding metastatic disease as well as palliative care were analyzed. The questionnaire includes questions with answers and a scoring system of Likert type 5 (absolutely disagree = 1, completely agree = 5). In the last part of the questionnaire, there were some words to detect what the words “cancer” and “oncologist” meant for the students. The participant students were analyzed in two study groups; “group 1” (n = 1.255) were phases I and II students that had never attended an oncology lesson, and “group 2” (n = 2.969) were phases III to VI students that had attended oncology lessons in the medical school. SPSS v17 was used for the database and statistical analyses. A value of p < 0.05 was noted as statistically significant. Group 1 defined cancer as a contagious disease (p = 0.00025), they believed that early diagnosis was never possible (p = 0.042), all people with a diagnosis of cancer would certainly die (p = 0.044), and chemotherapy was not successful in a metastatic disease (p = 0.003) as compared to group 2. The rate of the students that believed gastric cancer screening was a part of the national screening policy was significantly more in group 1 than in group 2 (p = 0.00014). Group 2 had a higher anxiety level for themselves or their family members to become a cancer patient. Most of the students in both groups defined medical oncologists as warriors (57% in group 1 and 40% in group 2; p = 0.097), and cancer was reminding them of “death” (54% in group 1 and 48% in group 2; p = 0.102). This study suggested that oncology education was useful for the students’ understanding of cancer and related issues; however, the level of oncology education should be improved in medical schools in Turkey. This would be helpful for medical doctors to cope with many aspects of cancer as a major health care problem in this country. © 2018, American Association for Cancer Education

Ice nucleation activity of agricultural soil dust aerosols from Mongolia, Argentina, and Germany

Soil dust particles emitted from agricultural areas contain considerable mass fractions of organic material. Also, soil dust particles may act as carriers for potentially ice-active biological particles. In this work, we present ice nucleation experiments conducted in the Aerosol Interaction and Dynamics in the Atmosphere (AIDA) cloud chamber. We investigated the ice nucleation efficiency of four types of soil dust from different regions of the world. The results are expressed as ice nucleation active surface site (INAS) densities and presented for the immersion freezing and the deposition nucleation mode. For immersion freezing occurring at 254 K, samples from Argentina, China, and Germany show ice nucleation efficiencies which are by a factor of 10 higher than desert dusts. On average, the difference in ice nucleation efficiencies between agricultural and desert dusts becomes significantly smaller at temperatures below 247 K. In the deposition mode the soil dusts showed higher ice nucleation activity than Arizona Test Dust over a temperature range between 232 and 248 K and humidities RHice up to 125%. INAS densities varied between 109 and 1011m-2 for these thermodynamic conditions. For one soil dust sample (Argentinian Soil), the effect of treatments with heat was investigated. Heat treatments (383 K) did not affect the ice nucleation efficiency observed at 249 K. This finding presumably excludes proteinaceous ice-nucleating entities as the only source of the increased ice nucleation efficiency.Fil: Steinke, I.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Funk, R.. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research; AlemaniaFil: Busse, J.. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research; AlemaniaFil: Iturri, Laura Antonela. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa; ArgentinaFil: Kirchen, S.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Leue, M.. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research; AlemaniaFil: Möhler, O.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Schwartz, T.. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa; ArgentinaFil: Schnaiter, M.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Sierau, B.. Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science; SuizaFil: Toprak, E.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Ullrich, R.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Ulrich, A.. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research; AlemaniaFil: Hoose, C.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; AlemaniaFil: Leisner, T.. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; Alemania. Heidelberg University; Alemani

Asymmetric intergroup bullying: the enactment and maintenance of societal inequality at work

What does inequality mean for dysfunctional organizational behaviours, such as workplace bullying? This article argues that workplace bullying can be understood as a manifestation of intergroup dynamics originating beyond the organization. We introduce the construct of asymmetric intergroup bullying: the disproportionate mistreatment of members of low status groups, with the intended effect of enhancing the subordination of that group in society at large. Analysis of data from 38 interviews with public and private sector workers in Turkey depicts a pattern of asymmetric intergroup bullying, undertaken to achieve organizational and broader sociopolitical goals. Respondents reported bullying acts used to get rid of unwanted personnel, with the goal of avoiding severance pay, or of removing supporters of the former government from positions of political and economic influence. Bullying was also described as working towards the dominance of the sociocultural worldview of one political group over another. We discuss asymmetric intergroup bullying as one mechanism through which acute intergroup hierarchy in the broader society corrupts management practice and employee interactions, in turn exacerbating economic inequality along group lines

Impact of Antioxidant Therapy on Natural Pregnancy Outcomes and Semen Parameters in Infertile Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Purpose: Seminal oxidative stress (OS) is a recognized factor potentially associated with male infertility, but the efficacy of antioxidant (AOX) therapy is controversial and there is no consensus on its utility. Primary outcomes of this study were to investigate the effect of AOX on spontaneous clinical pregnancy, live birth and miscarriage rates in male infertile patients. Secondary outcomes were conventional semen parameters, sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) and seminal OS. Materials and methods: Literature search was performed using Scopus, PubMed, Ovid, Embase, and Cochrane databases. Only randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included and the meta-analysis was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Results: We assessed for eligibility 1,307 abstracts, and 45 RCTs were finally included, for a total of 4,332 infertile patients. We found a significantly higher pregnancy rate in patients treated with AOX compared to placebo-treated or untreated controls, without significant inter-study heterogeneity. No effects on live-birth or miscarriage rates were observed in four studies. A significantly higher sperm concentration, sperm progressive motility, sperm total motility, and normal sperm morphology was found in patients compared to controls. We found no effect on SDF in analysis of three eligible studies. Seminal levels of total antioxidant capacity were significantly higher, while seminal malondialdehyde acid was significantly lower in patients than controls. These results did not change after exclusion of studies performed following varicocele repair. Conclusions: The present analysis upgrades the level of evidence favoring a recommendation for using AOX in male infertility to improve the spontaneous pregnancy rate and the conventional sperm parameters. The failure to demonstrate an increase in live-birth rate, despite an increase in pregnancy rates, is due to the very few RCTs specifically assessing the impact of AOX on live-birth rate. Therefore, further RCTs assessing the impact of AOX on live-birth rate and miscarriage rate, and SDF will be helpful

SMEs' purchasing habits : A procurement maturity model for stakeholders

Although micro companies overpower the small and medium enterprise (SME) segment, generalizations are often with medium size companies, and therefore, there are many unknowns, especially when it comes to its buying behavior. Conformist studies and industry practices assume SMEs to be “normative” or “conservative” buyers; however, this hypothesis is untested. This article aims to scrutinize the reality, and proposes a unified model that rejects pre-containerization in buying behavior typologies, as well as selectiveness in terms of audience type, whether it is corporate, SME, or consumer. While replacing researchers’ perceptions with the audience’s, the model yields actual knowledge that can lead to audience’s beliefs in lieu of the opposite, which is used to mislead stakeholders. The study shows that SMEs also buy like individuals and spend in a similar way to consumers’, including not only “normative” and “conservative” but also “negligent” and “impulse” zones. From the research-implications perspective, future studies by behaviorists can explore why SMEs purchase in this way. Marketers may benefit from the finding that SMEs buy like individuals. In addition, SMEs may want to be conscious of their purchasing habits, and—utilizing the newly introduced “risk score” frontier—policymakers should assess the consequences of these habits at the macro level

Analytic philosophy for biomedical research: the imperative of applying yesterday's timeless messages to today's impasses

The mantra that "the best way to predict the future is to invent it" (attributed to the computer scientist Alan Kay) exemplifies some of the expectations from the technical and innovative sides of biomedical research at present. However, for technical advancements to make real impacts both on patient health and genuine scientific understanding, quite a number of lingering challenges facing the entire spectrum from protein biology all the way to randomized controlled trials should start to be overcome. The proposal in this chapter is that philosophy is essential in this process. By reviewing select examples from the history of science and philosophy, disciplines which were indistinguishable until the mid-nineteenth century, I argue that progress toward the many impasses in biomedicine can be achieved by emphasizing theoretical work (in the true sense of the word 'theory') as a vital foundation for experimental biology. Furthermore, a philosophical biology program that could provide a framework for theoretical investigations is outlined

Effects of Age on Optical Coherence Tomography Measurements of Healthy Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer, Macula, and Optic Nerve Head

Purpose—To determine the effects of age on global and sectoral peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), macular thicknesses and optic nerve head (ONH) parameters in healthy subjects using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Design—Retrospective, cross-sectional observational study. Participants—226 eyes from 124 healthy subjects were included. Methods—Healthy subjects were scanned using the Fast RNFL, Fast Macula, and Fast ONH scan patterns on a Stratus OCT. All global and sectoral RNFL and macular parameters and global ONH parameters were modeled in terms of age using linear mixed effects models. Normalized slopes were also calculated by dividing the slopes by the mean value of the OCT parameter for inter-parameter comparison. Main Outcome Measures—Slope of each OCT parameter across age. Results—All global and sectoral RNFL thickness parameters statistically significantly decreased with increasing age, except for the temporal quadrant and clock hours 8-10, which were not statistically different from a slope of zero. Highest absolute slopes were in the inferior and superior quadrant RNFL and clock hour 1 (superior nasal). Normalized slopes showed similar rate in all sectors except for the temporal clock hours (8-10). All macular thickness parameters statistically significantly decreased with increasing age, except for the central fovea sector, which had a slight positive slope that was not statistically significant. The nasal outer sector had the greatest absolute slope. Normalized macular slope in the outer ring was similar to the normalized slopes in the RNFL. Normalized inner ring had shallower slope than the outer ring with similar rate in all quadrants. Disc area remained nearly constant across the ages, but cup area increased and rim area decreased with age, both of which were statistically significant. Conclusions—Global and regional changes due to the effects of age on RNFL, macula and ONH OCT measurements should be considered when assessing eyes over time.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01-EY13178-09)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01-EY11289-23)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (P30-EY008098