VISCEL, a general-purpose computer program for analysis of linear viscoelastic structures. Volume 1 - User's manual

VISCEL computer program user manual for analysis of linear viscoelastic structure

A Search For Supernova Remnants in The Nearby Spiral Galaxy M74 (NGC 628)

We have identified nine new SNR candidates in M74 with [S II]/H$\alpha$ $\geq$ 0.4 as the basic criterion. We obtain [S II]/H$\alpha$ ratio in the range from 0.40 to 0.91 and H$\alpha$ intensities from 2.8 $\times$ $10^{-15}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ to 1.7 $\times$ $10^{-14}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. We also present spectral follow-up observations of the SNR candidates and can confirm only three of them (SNR2, SNR3, and SNR5). The lack of confirmation for the rest might be due to the contamination by the nearby H II emission regions as well as due to the inaccurate positioning of the long slit on these objects. In addition, we search the $Chandra$ Observatory archival data for the X-ray counterparts to the optically identified candidates. We find positional coincidence with only three SNR candidates, SNR1, SNR2, and SNR8. The spectrum of SNR2 yields a shock temperature of 10.8 keV with an ionization timescale of 1.6 $\times$ 10$^{10}$ s cm$^{-3}$ indicating a relatively young remnant in an early Sedov phase which is not supported by our optical wavelength analysis. Given the high luminosity of 10$^{39}$ erg s$^{-1}$ and the characteristics of the X-ray spectrum, we favor an Ultra Luminous X-ray Source interpretation for this source associated with an SNR. We calculate an X-ray flux upper limit of 9.0 $\times$ $10^{-15}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ for the rest of the SNRs including spectroscopically identified SNR3 and SNR5.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted to be published in A&

Turkey's nuclear energy policy: Perceptions, values and public acceptability

Turkey’s nuclear energy policy goes back to the 1950s when the Turkish Atomic Agency was established in 1956. The country, however, has not, to date, constructed any nuclear power stations (NPP), but now plans to build three NPPs in the Akkuyu, Sinop and Igneada regions by 2030. As nuclear energy comes with both benefits and risks, Turkey’s nuclear energy policy has divided the public into two, essentially opposing, groups: supporters and opponents. They both have strong and reasonable arguments, which makes nuclear energy a controversial topic. While supporters state that NPPs are cheap, environmentally friendly and reliable energy sources, opponents disagree and claim that NPPs are costly, eco-unfriendly and unsafe. This research aims to develop a broader perspective that explains how the public perceive the advantages and disadvantages of NPPs. It concludes that the acceptability of NPPs is a highly subjective judgement, which means the approach to NPPs depends mainly on the values that shape how people perceive their advantages and disadvantages

VISCEL: A general-purpose computer program for analysis of linear viscoelastic structures (user's manual), volume 1

This program, an extension of the linear equilibrium problem solver ELAS, is an updated and extended version of its earlier form (written in FORTRAN 2 for the IBM 7094 computer). A synchronized material property concept utilizing incremental time steps and the finite element matrix displacement approach has been adopted for the current analysis. A special option enables employment of constant time steps in the logarithmic scale, thereby reducing computational efforts resulting from accumulative material memory effects. A wide variety of structures with elastic or viscoelastic material properties can be analyzed by VISCEL. The program is written in FORTRAN 5 language for the Univac 1108 computer operating under the EXEC 8 system. Dynamic storage allocation is automatically effected by the program, and the user may request up to 195K core memory in a 260K Univac 1108/EXEC 8 machine. The physical program VISCEL, consisting of about 7200 instructions, has four distinct links (segments), and the compiled program occupies a maximum of about 11700 words decimal of core storage

An action research report on the rising democracy discourse in 2000s Turkey: Does Eros Contour the Demos?

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This article conceptualizes gender equity and sexual liberty issues that most of the literature on democracy and democratization in Turkey fails to address. The major focus of the article is on the convergent and divergent positions of the rising democratization discourse in contemporary Turkey. When the democratization discourses of different political groups are analyzed, we see that the convergent points consist of legal and constitutional changes that aim at political and economic liberalization, while the divergent points include liberalization in the private sphere and engaging in gender equity and sexual liberty issues. Therefore, we argue that it is crucial to analyze gender equity and sexual liberty issues with more dynamic concepts such as globalization and the EU accession process of Turkey rather than the essentialist ones like Islam

Urban Aesthetics: The Case of Istanbul and Edinburgh

Cities are dynamic phenomena, which comprise natural, cultural, historical, architectural, social and artificial elements. These elements interact mutually in the urban fabric. In general, cities have been partially destroyed and new structures not designed with aesthetic considerations in countries that have experienced rapid and unplanned urbanisation, such as Turkey. In contrast, cities where planned and orderly urbanisation took place, such as Scotland and England, combine the physical and cultural environment harmoniously. As urban settlements become ever more crowded due to the working and living conditions they offer, a regard for urban aesthetics becomes increasingly imperative. One of the main aims of this study is to discuss urban aesthetics, contrasting Istanbul, which has experienced unplanned urbanisation and Edinburgh, which has widely been accepted as one of the best examples of orderly urbanisation

Assessment of China – Nigeria Trade Relations (1990-2018)

The study assessed China- Nigeria trade relations covering a period of 29 years from 1990 to 2018. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design and obtained data for export and import transactions from the Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin. The study used T-test, charts, and tables to address the engagement of China-Nigeria trade relations. The study used Microsoft excel software package and statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 to analysis the data. The study found that Nigeria has not gained from trade relations with China from 1990 to 2018 and it is only China that benefited from trade relations with Nigeria from 1990 to 2018. The study recommended that the Nigerian Government should re-strategise its industrial sector to enable the country to manufacture industrial goods and manufactured consumable goods as well as medical equipment to export to China. They should try to discover what type of industrial goods that China does not well produce and should re-strategise to produce it with low labour and low capital. The Chinese Government should continue to import goods to Nigeria since they are the ones benefiting from trade relations in Nigeria from 1990 to 2018. They should also encourage the Nigerian government to produce and manufacture industrial goods so that they can face a little competitive with Nigeria in the future for improvement of their products

Possible optical counterparts of ULXs in NGC 1672

In this study, we use archival data from HST, Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Swift-XRT, to probe the nature of 9 (X1-X9) candidate ULXs in NGC 1672. Our study focuses on using the precise source positions obtained via improved astrometry based on {\it Chandra} and HST observations to search for and identify optical counterparts for these ULXs.Unique optical counterparts are identified for X2 an{d X6; two potential counterparts were determined for X1, X5 and X7 within the respective error radii while no optical counterparts were found for the remaining four sources. Based on spectral energy distributions (SEDs), X-ray and optical temporal analyses, some evidences about the nature of X1 and X2 were obtained.Comment: To appear in Astronomische Nachrichten / Astronomical Notes (AN). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2207.0630

Interactions mechanism of commonly used drugs for the treatment of Covid-19

In this study conformation analysis of seven drugs commonly used in the treatment of COVID-19 was performed. The most stable conformers of the drug molecules were used as initial data for docking analysis. Using the Cavityplus program, the probable most active binding sites of both apo and holo forms of COVID-19 main protease enzyme (Mpro) and spike glycoprotein of SARSCoV-2 receptors were determined. The interaction mechanisms of the 7 FDA approved drugs (arbidol, colchicine, dexamethasone, favipiravir, galidesivir, hydroxychloroquine, remdesivir) were examined using the AutoDock Vina program. The six of the seven drugs were found to be more stable in binding to apo form of COVID-19 Mpro and spike glycoprotein. Moreover, a set of molecular mechanics (MM) Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) surface area (SA) calculations on the investigated drugs-protein systems were performed and the estimated binding free energy of remdesivir and the apo form of Mpro system was found to be the best. The interaction results of FDA drugs with the apo form of COVID-19 Mpro and spike glycoprotein can play an important role for the treatment of COVID-19.                     KEY WORDS: COVID-19, Drugs, Molecular modelling, Conformational analysis, Molecular docking   Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2020, 34(3), 613-623. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v34i3.1