Terrorist attacks are linked to the timing of elections, but only in states where it is difficult to influence the political process

Do democracies experience an increased risk of terrorist attacks when an election draws near? Deniz Aksoy presents results from an analysis of terrorist attacks in western European democracies between 1950 and 2004. She writes that while there is evidence that terrorist attacks increase in the lead up to elections, this is only the case in countries where marginalised groups find it difficult to influence the political process, such as in states with high electoral thresholds for representation in parliament

Determination of in vitro biofilm formation abilities of food borne salmonella enterica isolates

Salmonellosis caused by non-typhodial Salmonella enterica serotypes is one of the most important food-borne diseases worldwide and biofilm structure formed by these pathogens provide a reservoir for food contamination and a source for infections. This study was performed in order to determine biofilm formation abilities of food borne Salmonella isolates on polystyrene and on air liquid interphase and their colony morphologies when grown on Congo Red Agar plates. 32 food-borne Salmonella strains isolated from retail chicken carcasses in Edirne province of Turkey and belonging to the Infantis, Enteritidis, Kentucky and Telaviv serotypes were used. The microtiter plate technique was used to determine biofilm formation abilities of the isolates on polystyrene surfaces by measuring the optical density (OD) values of the stained bacterial biofilms. The results showed that the strongest biofilm formation capacities of the isolates were observed at 22°C for 3 days of incubation. Although all isolates formed pellicle on the liquid-air interface at 22°C, only 13% of the isolates belonging to the Infantis, Kentucky and Enteritidis serovars formed pellicle at liquid-air interface at 37°C. Three different colony morphotypes (saw; smooth and white, bdar; brown, dry and rough, rdar; red, dry and rough) were determined on Congo Red Agar among the isolates. High biofilm formation abilities of the tested Salmonella isolates can lead to widespread of virulence and resistance properties, especially to medically important antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, via food chain. This situation constitutes an important concern for public health.Salmonella enterica serotiplerinin neden olduğu salmonelloz vakaları dünya çapında en önemli gıda kökenli hastalıkların başında gelmektedir. Bu patojenlerin oluşturduğu biyofilm yapısı hem gıda kontaminasyonlarına neden olmakta hem de enfeksiyonlar için kaynak oluşturmaktadır. Bu çalışmada gıda kökenli Salmonella enterica izolatlarının polistirende ve havasıvı ara fazında biyofilm oluşturma yetenekleri ve ayrıca Kongo kırmızısı agar plakalarında koloni morfolojilerinin belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmada Edirne ilinde satışa sunulan tavuk karkaslarından izole edilmiş 32 adet Salmonella izolatı kullanılmıştır. İzolatların plastik yüzeylerdeki biyofilm oluşturma yeteneklerinin belirlenmesinde boyanmış bakteriyel biyofilmlerin optik yoğunluklarının ölçülmesi esasına dayanan mikroplaka tekniği kullanılmıştır. Polistren plakalardaki biyofilm oluşturma sonuçlarına göre, izolatların en güçlü biyofilm oluşturma kapasitesi 22°C'de 3 günde gözlemlenmiştir. Bütün izolatlar 22°C'de sıvı-hava ara fazında pelikül oluştururken izolatların sadece % 13'ü (Infantis, Kentucky ve Enteritidis serovarlarını içeren) 37°C'de sıvı-hava ara fazında pelikül oluşturmaktadır. Kongo kırmızısı agarda üç farklı koloni morfolojisi (saw; pürüzsüz ve beyaz, bdar; kahverengi, kuru ve pürüzlü, rdar; kırmızı, kuru ve pürüzlü) belirlenmiştir. Salmonella izolatlarının yüksek biyofilm oluşturma kapasiteleri, virülens ve özellikle tıbbi olarak önemli antibiyotikleri içeren direnç faktörlerinin gıda zinciri yolu ile geniş çaplı yayılımına neden olabilir. Bu durum halk sağlığı açısından büyük bir endişe kaynağı oluşturmaktadı

Determination of Blooming, Pollen and Fruit Set Characteristics in Punica granatum

The objective of this study was to investigate flowering, pollen, and fruit set characteristics of locally registered pomegranate cultivars between two consecutive years. ‘Dr. Ercan 35’, ‘Efenar 35’, ‘Kamilbey 35’, and ‘Tezeren 35’ cultivars have been developed by cross-breeding programs. Open-, cross-, and self-pollination studies were performed with these cultivars using three trees in each replicate in the field. Number of anthers per flower, number of pollen grains per anther, viability, and germination tests were conducted in the laboratory. Fruit set ratio of self-pollinated combinations were lower than open-pollination. The fruit set ratio from self-pollination was obtained from ‘Dr. Ercan’ (60.3%), ‘Efenar 35’ (62.4%), ‘Kamilbey 35’ (50.5%), and ‘Tezeren 35’ (25.2%). The highest fruit set ratio (49.7%) was obtained from ‘Kamilbey 35’ × ‘Dr. Ercan 35’ combination. The highest number of characteristics was as follows: ‘Tezeren 35’ (402 anthers/hermaphrodite flowers), ‘Kamilbey 35’ (8550 pollen/anther, male flowers in the beginning of flowering), ‘Efenar 35’ (84.7% pollen viability, hermaphrodite flowers), ‘Kamilbey 35’ (71.2%, pollen germination, hermaphrodite flowers). In conclusion, at least one, two or more, pollinator cultivars are necessary for commercial plantations using with these recently released pomegranate cultivars

Euroscepticism of political parties in Poland and Czech Republic

Ankara : The Department of International Relations, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2011.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2011.Includes bibliographical references leaves 132-140.This study is an attempt to explore the distinctive character of Europeanization of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) and seeks to contribute to the development of the literature on Europeanization of political parties. The main inquiry is to analyze the relationship between Europeanization of political parties and party-level Euroscepticism. The study argues that party-level Euroscepticism is not merely an effect, but also a clear manifestation of Europeanization process.Aksoy, DenizM.S

Force spectroscopy using bimodal atomic force microscopy

Ankara : The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Institute of Engineering and Sciences of Bilkent University, 2010.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2010.Includes bibliographical references leaves 64-69.In atomic force microscopy (AFM) achieving compositional contrast while mapping topographical features is a challenging task. Conventional single mode frequency and amplitude modulation AFM techniques are sensitive to the properties of the tip sample interaction, however in the absence of additional information channels, compositional features such as elasticity and density cannot be distinguished from topographical variations. To tackle this problem bimodal excitation techniques are introduced. In bimodal amplitude modulation AFM, sensitivity to compositional features improves by recording the phase of the higher order vibrations, while the topography is acquired using the amplitude of the first order vibrations. Increased sensitivity to mechanical properties allows imaging delicate samples such as organic molecules using gentle forces. In this thesis we propose a force spectroscopy technique in which two modes of a cantilever are excited in such a way that the amplitudes of the components of the vibration stay constant. Presence of the force field modulates the properties of the primarily bi-harmonic vibration of the cantilever, which is, in our case, the instantaneous frequencies of vibration modes. The frequency shift of the first mode remains sensitive to topographical variation, whereas the frequency shift of the higher mode samples the gradient of the tip sample forces and allows us to extract the tip sample interaction as a function of separation within a single cycle of the slow oscillation. We provide an analytic treatment of the proposed scheme and confirm our predictions by numerical simulations. We present an analysis of the sensitivity of higher mode frequency shifts to compositional features in the presence of thermal and sensor noise. We demonstrate that the method is suitable for the fast acquisition of contact properties, especially in vacuum environment where the large quality factor of the cantilever limits the available bandwidth of the amplitude modulation techniques. Finally we investigate phase shifts in bimodal amplitude modulation AFM using the developed formalism and show that phase contrast can be optimized by solving a simpler problem in single mode amplitude modulation AFM.Aksoy, Mehmet DenizM.S

Pressure support ventilation with the I-gel in intensive care unit: case report

AbstractBackground and objectivesThe I-gel supraglottic airway has a non-inflatable cuff made from a gel-like thermoplastic elastomer. The use of the I-gel during anesthesia for spontaneously breathing patients or intermittent positive pressure ventilation has been reported. But there are a few published reports about the use of the I-gel with pressure-controlled ventilation.Contents and conclusionsIn this case report we described the use of the I-gel supraglottic airway along 48h in intensive care unit for the management of ventilation in a patient needed mechanic ventilation but in whom tracheal intubation could not be performed

Heating of magnetic fluid systems driven by circularly polarized magnetic field

A theory is presented to calculate the heat dissipation of a magnetic suspension, a ferrofluid, driven by circularly polarized magnetic field. Theory is tested by in vitro experiments and it is shown that, regardless of the character of the relaxation process, linearly and circularly polarized magnetic field excitations, having the same root-mean-square magnitude, are equivalent in terms of heating efficiency. © 2010 Elsevier B.V

Effect of different slaughter weights, genotype and sex on sensory attributes of chicken breast meat

Bu çalışma; farklı kesim ağırlığı, genotip ve cinsiyet faktörlerinin etlik piliçlerde göğüs eti duyusal özellikleri üzerine etkilerini saptamayı hedeflemiştir. Yavaş- (YG) ve hızlı-gelişen (HG) etçi civcivler (Sasso ve Cobb-308) yer bölmelerinde (12 piliç/m2) beslenmiştir. Piliçler düşük, orta ve yüksek canlı ağırlıkta (1.5, 2 ve 2.5 kg) kesime sevk edilmişlerdir. Söz konusu ağırlıklara HG’ler 41., 53. ve 58.; YG’ler ise 62., 73. ve 82. günlerde ulaşmışlardır. Farklı kesim ağırlığındaki her iki genotipten 20’şer (10 erkek, 10 dişi) karkas lezzet paneli için rasgele seçilmiştir. Bunların sağ göğüs etleri derisiz olarak ayrılmış ve tüketici paneline dek -18ºC’de tutulmuştur. Toplam 120 adet göğüs eti çözdürülmüş ve iki taraflı pişirme özelliğine sahip ızgarada, alüminyum folyo arasında pişirilmiştir. Pişirilen örnekler 80 kişiden oluşan bir tüketici paneline sunulmuştur. Panelistler, örnekleri koku, yumuşaklık, tat ve genel beğeni bakımından 10 puan üzerinden (1=aşırı kötü, 10=mükemmel) değerlendirmişlerdir. Koku bakımından yüksek kesim ağırlığına sahip grup daha fazla beğenilmiştir (P<0.05). Kesim ağırlığı, etin yumuşaklığı ile genel beğeniyi de etkilemiştir (P<0.05), en düşük ortalamalar 1.5 kg’lık gruplarda saptanmıştır. Dişilerden elde edilen etler daha yumuşak bulunmuştur (P<0.01). Hem genotip, hem de kesim yaşı ile interaksiyonu; yumuşaklık, tat ve genel beğeniyi etkilemiştir (P<0.01); yüksek kesim ağırlığında YG’ler, düşük ve orta kesim ağırlığında HG’ler daha yüksek değerler göstermişlerdir.This study aimed to asses the impact of slaughter weights, genotype and sex on sensory attributes of breast meat. Slow- (SG) and fast-growing (FG) broilers (Sasso and Cobb-308) were raised indoor pens (12 chickens/m2). The birds were slaughtered at light, medium and heavy (1.5, 2 and 2.5 kg) body weight. Slaughter ages were 41, 53, or 58 days for FG and 62, 73, or 82 days for SG. Twenty carcasses (10 female, 10 male) were randomly selected for sensory evaluations from both genotypes in different slaughter weights. The right skinless breast fillets of them were manually dissected and stored at -18&ordm;C until consumer panel. A total 120 breast fillets were thawed and cooked between aluminum foil in two sided grill. Cooked samples were served to 80 consumer panelists. The panelists evaluated samples for odor, tenderness, taste and acceptance on ten-point scales (1=dislike extremely and 10=like extremely). It was observed that the heavy group was most preferred group according to odour scores (P&lt;0.05). Slaughter weight also affected tenderness and acceptability (P&lt;0.05), the lowest scores were obtained for light groups. It was found that meat comes from female was more tender compared to male (P&lt;0.01). Genotype and its interaction with slaughter weight had significant effects (P&lt;0.01) on tenderness, flavour and acceptability; SG in the heavy weight group, FG in the light and medium weight groups performed higher scores

A Practical Method for Analytical Evaluation of Approximate Solutions of Fisher's Equations

In this article, a framework is developed to get more approximate solutions to nonlinear partial differential equations by applying perturbation iteration technique. This technique is modified and improved to solve nonlinear diffusion equations of the Fisher type. Some problems are investigated to illustrate the efficiency of the method. Comparisons between the new results and the solutions obtained by other techniques prove that this technique is highly effective and accurate in solving nonlinear problems. Convergence analysis and error estimate are also provided by using some related theorems. The basic ideas indicated in this work are anticipated to be further developed to handle nonlinear models