Analyses of cement mortars containing reclaimed asphalt pavement by using DTA/TG and FTIR

Reciklirani asfaltni kolnik (RAP) koristi se u istraživanju kao reciklirani materijal za proizvodnju cementnog kompozita. Za proizvodnju uzoraka u cement je dodano 5 %, 10 % i 15 % RAP-a. TG/DTA analiza, izvedena nakon određivanja savojne čvrstoće, pokazala je da se minimalan gubitak mase uzorka javio u uzorcima s 5 % RAP-a pri kontroliranim uvjetima. Najveći gubitak mase iznosio je 11,8 %, a druga najviša vrijednost iznosila je 8,2 % za uzorke koji imaju 15 % aditiva C i koji su se njegovali pomoću otopine MgSO4.The reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) is used in the study as a recycled material for the production of cement composite. 5 %, 10 % and 15 % of RAP was added to the cement to produce samples. TG/DTA analyses, performed after flexural analyses, revealed that the minimum mass loss occurred in the samples with 5 % RAP additive at stable conditions. The highest mass loss was 11.8 %, and the second highest value amounted to 8.2 % for samples with 15 % of C additive cured in MgSO4 environment

Association with Leptin Gene c.-2548 G > A Polymorphism, Serum Leptin Levels, and Body Mass Index in Turkish Obese Patients

WOS: 000315161000019PubMed ID: 23054910Leptin is a protein hormone which plays a critical role in the regulation of both body-weight through reducing food intake and stimulating energy expenditure. Several polymorphisms in leptin gene (LEP), which encodes for leptin, have been described. However, its association with obesity is still controversial. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to investigate whether LEP c.-2548 G > A polymorphism was associated with serum leptin levels, lipid parameters, and body mass index in Turkish obese patients. Forty-seven obese patients and 48 healthy individuals were included in the study. Blood samples were collected for DNA extraction. LEP c.-2548 G > A polymorphism were detected using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. Serum leptin levels and lipid parameters were measured by ELISA and enzyme colorimetric assay techniques, respectively. GA or AA genotypes and A allele carrier frequencies of the c.-2548 G > A polymorphism in the LEP were higher in obese (38.3, 34.0 and 72.3 %) when compared with controls (14.6, 12.5, and 27.1 %; p = 0.011, 0.016, and 0.002, respectively). On the other hand, AA or AG genotypes were also related to increased serum leptin levels (p < 0.001) and body mass index (p < 0.0001). All these consequences showed that LEP -2548 AA or AG genotypes are important predictors for increased levels of leptin and BMI in Turkish obese patients and it may be a useful marker for obesity risk in our population.Mustafa Kemal University Scientific Research Projects Unit, Hatay, Turkey [MKUBAP1002Y0102]This study was supported by a grant from the Mustafa Kemal University Scientific Research Projects Unit, Hatay, Turkey (Project Nr. MKUBAP1002Y0102)

Medicolegal aspect of loss of smell and olfactory event-related potentials

Background: It is not straightforward to objectively evaluate the olfactory dysfunction that occurs following forensic incidents. The olfactory event-related potentials method, based on electrophysiological records, may provide objective data in the evaluation of posttraumatic anosmia cases from the medicolegal perspective. This study, where a quantitative evaluation of the cases with the complaints of olfactory sensation disorder was performed using the olfactory event-related potentials test, aims to identify the factors that should be considered in the evaluation of olfactory dysfunction from the medicolegal perspective. Results: This study first evaluated the complaints of 98 patients admitted because of posttraumatic impaired smell and then administered electrophysiological odor tests on the patients. Because of this, the relationship between the EEG responses of the cases and the olfactory disorder was examined. Of the 98 cases that participated in the study, 68 (69.4%) were male and 30 (30.6%) were female. Of all cases, 53 (54.1%) had complaints of not being able to smell at all, 14 (14.3%) had complaints of reduced smell, whereas, in addition to the existing complaints of olfactory dysfunction, 44 (44.9%) of them had complaints of taste perception and 18 (18.3%) reported having vision disorders. 21 of 37 cases who reported being unable to smell during the test turned out to be anosmic. Furthermore, 16 cases stated that, though having had a response in the odor test, they had no sense of smell following the test. Conclusions: Although it seems possible to prove that there is a relationship between the olfactory event-related potential test and the diagnosis of anosmia, there is still ongoing research on its use in clinical practice. Performing both subjective and electrophysiological tests together to detect olfactory dysfunctions that occur after a forensic incident enable provide more reliable results in diagnosis

Assessment of dissociation among combat-exposed soldiers with and without posttraumatic stress disorder

Background: Dissociation is a disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal, subjective integration of one or more aspects of psychological functioning, including memory, identity, consciousness, perception, and motor control. A limited number of studies investigated combat-related dissociation. Objective: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between dissociative symptoms and combat-related trauma. Method: This study included 184 individuals, including 84 patients who were exposed to combat and diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Group I), 50 subjects who were exposed to combat but were not diagnosed with PTSD (Group II), and 50 healthy subjects without combat exposure (Group III). The participants were evaluated using the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) to determine their total and sub-factor (i.e., amnesia, depersonalization/derealization, and absorption) dissociative symptom levels. In addition, Group I and Group II were compared with respect to the relationship between physical injury and DES scores. Results: The mean DES scores (i.e., total and sub-factors) of Group I were higher than those of Group II (p30) was highest in Group I, followed by Group II and Group III. When we compared combat-exposed subjects with high total DES scores, Group I had higher scores than Group II. In contrast, no relationship between the presence of bodily injury and total DES scores could be demonstrated. In addition, our results demonstrated that high depersonalization/derealization factor scores were correlated with bodily injury in PTSD patients. A similar relationship was found between high absorption factor scores and bodily injury for Group II. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that the level of dissociation was significantly higher in subjects with combat-related PTSD than in subjects without combat-related PTSD. In addition, combat-exposed subjects without PTSD also had higher dissociation levels than healthy subjects without combat experience

Scheduling in a two-machine flow-shop for earliness/tardiness under learning effect

WOS: 000307285400025In the literature, earliness/tardiness (E/T) problem was known as weighted absolute deviation problem, and both tardiness and earliness is very important performance criteria for scheduling problem. While total tardiness criteria provides adaptation for due date (ignoring results of earliness done jobs), it deals with only cost of tardiness. However this phenomenon has been started to change with just-in-time (JIT) production concept. On JIT production, earliness is as important as tardiness. The phenomenon of the learning effect has been extensively studied in many different areas of operational research. However, there have been a few studies in the general context of production scheduling such as flow-shop scheduling. This paper addresses the minimization of the total earliness/tardiness penalties under learning effects in a two-machine flow-shop scheduling problem. Jobs have a common due date. We present mathematical model to obtain an optimal schedule for a given job sequence. We also present heuristics that use genetic algorithm and tabu search, based on proposed properties. Furthermore, random search was used for showing the significance of the study by comparison purpose. A new set of benchmark problems is presented with the purpose of evaluating the heuristics. The experimental results show that the performance of proposed approach is quite well, especially for the instances of large size

(1+PD)-PID cascade controller design for performance betterment of load frequency control in diverse electric power systems

In our world of today developing incredibly fast, load frequency control (LFC) is an indispensable and vital element in increasing the standard of living of a country by providing a good quality of electric power. To this end, rapid and notable development has been recorded in LFC area. However, researchers worldwide need for the existence of not only effective but also computationally inexpensive control algorithm considering the limitations and difficulties in practice. Hence, this paper deals with the introduction of (1 + PD)-PID cascade controller to the relevant field. The controller is simple to implement and it connects the output of 1 + PD controller with the input of PID controller where the frequency and tie-line power deviation are applied to the latter controller as feedback signals also, which is the first attempt made in the literature. To discover the most optimistic results, controller gains are tuned concurrently by dragonfly search algorithm (DSA). For the certification purpose of the advocated approach, two-area thermal system with/without governor dead band nonlinearity is considered as test systems initially. Then single/multi-area multi-source power systems with/without a HVDC link are employed for the enriched validation purpose. The results of our proposal are analyzed in comparison with those of other prevalent works, which unveil that despite its simplicity, DSA optimized (1 + PD)-PID cascade strategy delivers better performance than others in terms of smaller values of the chosen objective function and settling time/undershoot/overshoot of the frequency and tie-line power deviations following a step load perturbation.WOS:0006608204000042-s2.0-8510773772

Utilization of Tyre and Asphalt Wastes as Cement Additives

Solid wastes causes environmental pollution in high level in these days. This is the very important problem in the world. To contribute preventing environmental pollution, there are various methods. Utilization of solid wastes in cement production is one of the methods. In this study scrap tires in four particle size lunge and waste asphalt in three particle size range which were obtained from Turkey were investigated in detail and their effects on the compressive strength properties of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) were determined. The chemical analysis of the all materials were carried out. After determining of the chemical properties, cements were produced by adding solid wastes to Portland Cement. The cement mixing rates were adjusted to contain 5%, 10% and 15% (wt/wt) waste tires and waste asphalt samples separately. The mortars produced with different amounts of solid wastes were tested for compressive strength values on 2, 7 and 28 days according to European Standard (TS EN 196-1). After determining compressive strength results of the mortars, their XRD analysis were done for 28 days. The results show when particle size increases, compressive strength increases mortars with waste tires. This causes less energy consumption. XRD results also compatible with compressive strength results

Socio-demographic and Clinical Features of Young Adult Males Using Synthetic Cannabinoid (English)

Object: Synthetic Cannabinoid (SC) use is becoming more widespread throughout the world. Studies that revealed user profiles indicate that the drug is especially popular among young men. Knowledge on sociodemographic, clinical characteristics and motivation for SC users in our country is limited. On the other hand, in spite of the increase of information known about symptoms of acute intoxication of SC use, physical and psychiatric consequences and loss of function due to longterm use of SC is limited. In this study, we aimed to investigate socio-demographic and clinical characteristics associated with SC use and the negative consequences caused by the use of SC. Methods: 166 male patients who admitted to the psychiatric outpatient clinic due to SC use disorder between November 2014 to April 2015 were enrolled in the study. Demographic data of patients, substance use characteristics, familial substance use, reasons for substance use, medical history, the problems related to drug use was questioned. Results: The age of onset for SC use was found to be 17.25 ± 2.30. SC using duration was 3.79 ± 2.15 years. The most common agents accompanying SC use were smoking (95.8%) and cannabis (88.6%). It was determined that 62.7% developed suicidal ideas due to SC use. Among psychiatric side effects, most common were euphoria, hallucinations, skepticism and suicidal ideation. About 1/3 of cases were found to live loss of business and legal issues depending on long-term SC use. 76.5% of the patients' consumed SC through inhalation and 22.9 % orally. It was determined that oral users began SC use at an earlier age than users via inhalation. Discussion: Despite the physical, mental, occupational, social and legal problems caused by the use of SC, it has become an important public health problem, especially among young men. Effective intervention programs for the use of outbreaking SCs need to be developed