Effects of Van der Waals Interaction and Hubbard Term Correction on First Principles Calculations of Structural and Lattice Dynamical Properties of AgCl

Structural, dielectric, and lattice dynamical properties of AgCl in the rock-salt structure are studied using density functional theory within generalized gradient approximation(GGA) in Perdew-Burke-Erzhenhof(PBE) parametrization and plane-wave pseudopotential method. The effect of van der Waals interaction (vdW) and Hubbard-U is investigated in detail for the lattice parameters, bulk modulus, dielectric, and phonon properties and compared to available experimental measurements. It is found that, inclusion of vdW interactions together with Hubbard U parameter to the standard GGA-PBE (PBE+vdW+U) improved the agreement with experimental lattice constant and bulk modulus of rock-salt AgCl. Moreover, PBE+vdW+U method is also correctly describes the acoustic and transverse optical (TO) phonon dispersion relation curves. The large underestimation (15%) of GGA-PBE in the longitudinal optical (LO) modes with respect to experiment is also decreased to 5% within the PBE+vdW+U method. This work demonstrates the applicability and accuracy of the van der Waals interaction and Hubbard-U term in predicting the structural, dielectric, and lattice dynamical properties of AgCl in the rock-salt structure

The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts: The Effects of an Antenatal Orientation Interviews Training for Prospective Parents Postnatal Depression Levels

The aim of this study was to examine an antenatal orientation interviews training for prospective parents' postnatal depression levels. A quasi-experimental study carried out with 26 (12 experimental, 14 control) prospective mother and father. Participants completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale one week before the intervention and 12 weeks after birth. Participants in experimental group received a four week new situation orientation interviews training for parents but any intervention made in control group. Results of this study suggested that albeit analyzing the orientation interviews of the males and the females in the experimental group, individual depression scores were observed to decrease, but this decrease was found to be statistically insignificant. However, once the depression levels of the families were analyzed as a whole, the parents' prenatal and postpartum depression levels were similar in the control group but parents in the experimental group post-partum depression levels were significantly decreased in postnatal period. Keywords: Postpartum depression, antenatal orientation interviews, prospective parents, Turkey

The Effect of Primary School Students’ Writing Attitudes and Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs on Their Summary Writing Achievement

In this study, the effect of writing attitude and writing self-efficacy beliefs on the summarization achievement of the 4thgrade primary school students was examined using the structural equation modeling. The study employed the relational survey model. The study group constructed by means of simple random sampling method is comprised of 335 fourth grade primary school students. In the collection of the research data, “Writing Self-efficacy Scale (Güneş, Kuşdemir and Bulut, 2017)”, “Writing Attitude Scale (Can, 2016)” and “Summary Evaluation Form for Narrative Texts” (Bulut, 2013) were used. For the current study, the constructed hypothesis is “writing attitude and writing self-efficacy positively and significantly affect writing achievement” and thus a model was formed. In the analysis of the data, SPSS 22 and AMOS 22.0 program packages were used. As a result of the study, it was found that writing attitude and writing self-efficacy beliefs are highly correlated to each other and writing attitude and writing self-efficacy beliefs directly and significantly affect summary writing

Lacanyen bakış açısından pervert yapı kavramı ve terapötik öneriler

Perversiyon, literatürde genellikle “suç teşkil eden eylemlerde” bulunma biçiminde anlaşılan bir kavramdır; fakat Lacan bu kavramı, nevroz ve psikoza ek olarak üçüncü bir klinik yapı olarak tanımlamaktadır. Lacan tarafından öne sürülen üç klinik yapının anlaşılması ve birbirlerinden ayrıştığı noktaların ele alınması önemlidir, çünkü bu yapılar belirli semptomlar temel alınarak yalnızca betimleyici teşhisler sunmanın ötesinde, bir tedavi modeli de sağlamaktadırlar. Perversiyonda özne, anneden ayrışmasına zemin hazırlayan ikinci baba işlevinin (Babanın Adı) etkili olamaması nedeniyle, büyük Öteki konumundaki annenin zevkinin nesnesi olmaya “Hayır” diyememektedir. İkinci baba işlevinin başarısızlığa uğramasının bazı nedenleri; baba işlevini “ mış gibi görünmeye/görüntüye” indirgeyen anne söylemi, kuralların gereklerine göre değil kendi duygularına göre çocuklarına kural koyan ebeveyn tutumu, ensest ve cinsel istismara uğrama olarak tartışılmaktadır. Baba işlevinin başarısız olmasının sonucunda, annede algılanan eksik “tanınmamaktadır” (disavowal) çünkü eksik babanın adı tarafından simgeleştirilmediği sürece çocuk iç in travmatiktir. Bu demektir ki; tanımama mekanizması, pervertlerin zevki kısıtlaması gereken baba işlevinin güçsüzlüğü ve eksiğin olmayışı ile başa çıkma yöntemleridir. Maka ede, pervert yapının özelliklerini örneklendirmek iç in bir vaka ele alınacaktır. Buna ek olarak, Lacanyen bakış açısı temel alınarak pervert yapı için terapötik önerilerde bulunulacak ve aynı vaka ile yürütülen terapi seanslarından bazı örnekler verilecektir.Publisher's Versio

The Relationship between Elementary School Students’ Reading Comprehension and Reading Motivation

Reading is an important language skill whose main purpose is comprehension. In the reading process, visible symbols must be perceived and interpreted in the brain. Once the reading skill has been acquired, it can become a tool for having access to information, analyzing and interpreting it. All of these depend on the reading comprehension skill. Thus, evaluation of reading comprehension is one of the subjects to which great importance is attached. Particularly the evaluation of the level of students’ reading comprehension is a subject of great interest for many researchers. In this regard, the current study aimed to investigate the relationship between the Turkish elementary school students’ reading comprehension and reading motivation. At the end of the study, it was found that there is a positive, medium and significant correlation between the students’ levels of reading comprehension determined with cloze tests made up of both narrative and informative texts and reading motivation. In addition, a positive, medium and significant correlation was found between the students’ levels of reading comprehension determined with open-ended questions made up of both narrative and informative texts and reading motivation. Increase in the students’ reading motivation affects their reading comprehension positively and significantly. Furthermore, reading motivation explains 12-13% of the total variance in their reading comprehension

Comprehensive investigation of the extremely low lattice thermal conductivity and thermoelectric properties of BaIn2Te4

Recently, an extremely low lattice thermal conductivity value has been reported for the alkali-based telluride material BaIn2Te4. The value is comparable with low-thermal conductivity metal chalcogenides, and the glass limit is highly intriguing. Therefore, to shed light on this issue, we performed first-principles phonon thermal transport calculations. We predicted highly anisotropic lattice thermal conductivity along different directions via the solution of the linearized phonon Boltzmann transport equation. More importantly, we determined several different factors as the main sources of the predicted ultralow lattice thermal conductivity of this crystal, such as the strong interactions between low-frequency optical phonons and acoustic phonons, small phonon group velocities, and lattice anharmonicity indicated by large negative mode Gruneisen parameters. Along with thermal transport calculations, we also investigated the electronic transport properties by accurately calculating the scattering mechanisms, namely the acoustic deformation potential, ionized impurity, and polar optical scatterings. The inclusion of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for electronic structure is found to strongly affect the p-type Seebeck coefficients. Finally, we calculated the thermoelectric properties accurately, and the optimal ZT value of p-type doping, which originated from high Seebeck coefficients, was predicted to exceed unity after 700 K and have a direction averaged value of 1.63 (1.76 in the y-direction) at 1000 K around 2 x 1020 cm-3 hole concentration. For n-type doping, a ZT around 3.2 x 1019 cm-3 concentration was predicted to be a direction-averaged value of 1.40 (1.76 in the z-direction) at 1000 K, mostly originating from its high electron mobility. With the experimental evidence of high thermal stability, we showed that the BaIn2Te4 compound has the potential to be a promising mid- to high-temperature thermoelectric material for both p-type and n-type systems with appropriate doping.Eskisehir Technical University [ESTU-BAP 22ADP150]C.S. acknowledges the support from the Eskisehir Technical University (ESTU-BAP 22ADP150). The numerical calculations reported in this paper were partially performed at TUBITAK ULAKBIM, High Performance and Grid Computing Center (TRUBA resources)

Sequential left internal mammary artery grafting in combination with the aortic no-touch technique

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the short-term outcomes achieved with off-pump bypass combined with the aortic no-touch technique where sequential anastomoses between the left internal mammary artery (LIMA), left anterior descending (LAD) and diagonal artery were employed. Material and methods: A total of 583 patients (mean age 63, 80% male) who underwent off-pump bypass (LIMA-diagonal-LAD sequential) were enrolled in this retrospective analysis. Data regarding the frequency of in-hospital postoperative complications, intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) and inotropic agent requirement, re-exploration for bleeding, and length of hospital stay were collected. Anastomosis patency was evaluated in 49 patients who underwent angiography. Results: 2.6% of the participants received inotropic agents and 0.5% required IABP. Frequency of acute renal failure, sternal wound infection, cerebrovascular event, respiratory failure, and hemodialysis was less than 1% in total. Among the 49 patients undergoing angiography at an average 41 ±17 months after bypass, the LIMA-LAD was patent in 98% and the LIMA-diagonal was patent in 84% of the subjects. Preoperative left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) and recent myocardial infarction (MI) prior to bypass were significantly correlated with postoperative IABP and inotropic agent requirement (r = 0.165, p < 0.01 for LVEF, p = 0.021 for recent MI). Conclusions: Off-pump bypass in combination with the aortic no-touch technique is associated with favorable postoperative outcomes including reduced postoperative stroke, renal dysfunction, IABP, and inotropic agent requirement compared to the results of previous randomized prospective studies published in the literature. © 2022 Termedia Publishing House Ltd.. All rights reserved

Elevated Serum Level of DHEAS as a Hormone and IL-6 as a Proinflammatory Cytokine May Better Indicate Metabolic Syndrome in PCOS Women

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the most prevalent metabolic disorder in reproductive-age women, indeed multifactorial condition. Cytokines such as TNF-alpha and IL-6 have influence on several metabolic activities. The increase in dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is thought to play an important role in IL-6-mediated pathogenetic effects in PCOS women. The aim of this study is to explore whether TNF-alpha and IL-6 are correlated hormone levels in PCOS disease.  We recruited 65 PCOS patients and 45 healthy controls. The serum IL-6, TNF-alpha, levels were measured by ELISA and clinical characteristics were measured. Both serum IL-6, TNF-alpha levels (p&lt;0.01), or the serum TSH, FSH, LH, PRL levels were significantly higher in the patients of PCOS (p&lt;0.01). Serum IL-6 levels were correlated with DHEAS level (r=-0.4186, p&lt;0.01). DHEAS level tended to be higher in PCOS women with a correlation between age, BMI, IL-6 level and positively correlated with FSH, LH and PRL levels (p&lt;0.01). There was an elevation of TSH level in the PCOS group (2.4±1.5) vs. control group (1.8±1.6). However, in control samples, there was no correlation between TNF alpha and IL-6, while in the PCOS samples positive correlation, was obtained. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was higher than the control (20.38±13.2) group vs. PCOS women (128.33±33.8) but only 3.44 % of them had Type II diabetes. HOMA-IR index was higher in the PCOS group (8.26±15.06) vs. control group (2.12±0.88) too. There was a correlation between age and IL-6 level and BMI. Serum IL-6 and DHEAS levels were significantly altered in PCOS patients and determined which might be PCOS prognostic importance. Keywords; PCOS; Cytokines; TNF-alpha; IL-6; DHEAS; Metabolic syndrome DOI: 10.7176/JMPB/71-02 Publication date:June 30th 202

The Limbic Degradation of Aging Brain: A Quantitative Analysis with Diffusion Tensor Imaging

WOS: 000335020000001PubMed ID: 24977184Introduction. The limbic system primarily responsible for our emotional life and memories is known to undergo degradation with aging and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is capable of revealing thewhite matter integrity. Theaimof this study is to investigate agerelated changes of quantitative diffusivity parameters and fiber characteristics on limbic system in healthy volunteers. Methods. 31 healthy subjects aged 25-70 years were examined at 1,5 TMR. Quantitative fiber tracking was performed of fornix, cingulum, and the parahippocampal gyrus. The fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements of bilateral hippocampus, amygdala, fornix, cingulum, and parahippocampal gyrus were obtained as related components. Results. The FA values of left hippocampus, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, and fornix showed negative correlations with aging. The ADC values of right amygdala and left cingulum interestingly showed negative relation and the left hippocampus represented positive relation with age. The cingulum showed no correlation. The significant relative changes per decade of age were found in the cingulum and parahippocampal gyrus FA measurements. Conclusion. Our approach shows that aging affects hippocampus, parahippocampus, and fornix significantly but not cingulum. These findings reveal age-related changes of limbic system in normal population that may contribute to future DTI studies