Assessing Potential Areas of Ecotourism through a Case Study in Ilgaz Mountain National Park

The changing demands of tourism provide greater benefits to tourists and generate competitive advantages that develop diversity in tourism. Elements of ecotourism fit within this context, and such tourism includes, but is not limited to, activities such as visiting natural and cultural resources without destroying nature, which are carried out with an aim toward sustainability. Ilgaz Mountain has a wealth of natural, cultural, historical, and recreational features, and its location near the Black Sea gives the area significant tourism potential. In order to evaluate the impact, potential, and possibilities of ecotourism in this protected area, we used geographic information systems (GIS) to determine the nature of protection required based on implementation availability. In this study, we used ecology-based identification of the natural and cultural values to characterize the features. The study consists of four parts: (1) the concept of ecotourism, (2) discussion of sustainable growth of tourism, (3) sustainability of ecotourism using GIS and how this is related to sustainable ecotourism in protected areas, such as in Turkey, (4) results and evaluation. By assessing these results, we aim to determine potential areas for ecotourism in terms of sustainable development, and we expect the results to provide useful ideas for further research

Social Values Perceptions of Fourth Grade Primary School Students

This study was conducted with the aim of determining the perceptions of social values of fourth grade primary school students. The research is a descriptive study based on survey model. The study sample group is composed of 451 fourth grade students studying in four different schools in Siirt city center selected via convenience sampling method. The Perception Scale for Social Values developed by Bakaç (2013) was used as data collection instrument. There are a total of 23 five-point likert-type items on The Perception Scale for Social Values, of which 19 items are designed to measure positive perceptions and 4 items are designed to measure negative perceptions. Cronbach-Alpha reliability coefficients of the scale are .88 for the first sub-scale, .72 for the second sub- scale and .86 for the total scale. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U-Test and Kruskal Wallis methods were used for data analysis. The findings of the study indicate that the social value perceptions of fourth grade students show no significant difference with regard to gender or education level of mother. Whereas it was concluded that the social value perceptions of fourth grade students show a significant difference with regard to place of residence and education level of fathe

The Realist and Liberal Positions on the Role of International Organizations in Maintaining World Order

In the international relations (IR)’ theoretical and empirical studies, international regime studies emerged as a reaction to inadequacies of the concepts of authority, international order and organization. Over more than half a century, realism has been skeptical of international law. In both classical and neorealist approaches, states are depicted as seeking to maximize power and producing a balance of power. This study examines two paradigms, realism and liberalism, in an attempt to take a closer look at what each of these schools has to offer to the international relations. To be able to carry out such an evaluation each of these paradigms will be analyzed with respect to their positions on the following principles: unit of analysis, key concepts, behavioral dynamics, interstate system, peace and war, and last but not least explanatory power. Discussing the strengths and weaknesses of each of these paradigms will help in determining which of these approaches is the most persuasive

Determination of the Effect of Drought Stress on the Seed Germination in Some Plant Species

Especially the use of drought‐resistant plant species reduces maintenance and irrigation costs, and plants increase the retention and success to continue its life in arid landscape. In this study, some plant species used have been studied to determine their tolerance to drought stress in gardens and parks in Kastamonu. For this purpose, germination trials have been in conducted -2, -4, -6, and -8 Bar water stress. Landscaping applications commonly used some species such as Cupressus sempervirens L., Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) Swingle, Pyracantha coccinea Roem, Thuja orientalis, Pinus sylvestris L., Sophora japonica, Cedrus libani A. Rich., Acer pseudoplatanus L., Pinus brutia Ten., and Pinus nigra Arnold. ssp. pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe. Their seeds were evaluated different levels of water stress in the germination percentage. PEG 6000 solution was used in the formulation of water stress. The seeds were exposed to constant temperature of 25°C for a period of 35 days at germination cabinet. As a result, this experiment calculated germination in different water stress levels what percentage has fallen, so the least affected by increased water stress was studied to determine the species. Also results showed increased water stress and reduce the percentage of germination in all species. The highest level of water stress -8 Bar, which was also obtained stress level proportional germination values Pinus nigra Arnold. ssp. pallasiana (Lamb.) Holmboe (64.8%) and Pinus brutia Ten. (46.5%)

Intraoperative superior hypogastric plexus block for pain relief after a cesarean section: a case-control study

Aim To investigate the efficacy of intraoperative superior hypogastric plexus (SHP) block for postoperative pain relief in patients undergoing a cesarean section. Methods One hundred and fifteen pregnant women scheduled for an elective cesarean under general anesthesia were randomly divided into an SHP block (n=65) and a control group (n=50). SHP block was administered with bupivacaine injection. The controls received saline injection in the SHP area. Postoperative pain was assessed by the 10-cm visual analog scale (VAS). The presence of side effects and complications, including opioid or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) requirement, gastrointestinal function, nausea, and vomiting were evaluated. Results The SHP block group had significantly lower VAS scores 2, 6, 24, and 48 hours postoperatively (P<0.001) and required a significantly lower rescue dose of NSAID or opioids (P=0.003, P<0.05, respectively). Conclusions SHP block may be an effective and safe pain relief treatment after a cesarean section

Effects of Some Hormone Applications on Germination and Morphological Characters of Endangered Plant Species Lilium artvinense L. Seeds

Lilies are economically important plants because of their large and attractive flowers. Thus, many wild species of lilies have been cultivated to produce Lilium bulbs or flowers. This work was conducted to analyse the effect of hormone applications on Lilium artvinense (Syn: Lilium ponticum K. Koch., Lilium ponticum var. artvinense (Miscz.) P. H. Davis and D. M. Hend., Lilium carniolicum var. artvinense (Miscz.) P. H. Davis and D. M. Hend and Lilium pyrenaicum var. artvinense (Miscz.) V.A. Matthews) seeds on germination percentage and seedlings morphological traits. In the research, 1000, 3000 and 5000 ppm doses of IAA, IBA, NAA and GA3 hormones were applied to L. artvinense seeds and approximately 180 days later, the number of roots, root length, offset stem height and diameter were assessed. As a result, while the control group except 5000 ppm NNA application achieved an increase in the percentage of germination (40%) of all the applications. Germination frequency up to 100% was obtained using 5000 ppm GA3. Effects of hormone applications on other key morphological characters (rooting percentage, root height, number of scions, scion height and width) are described in terms of growth rate between 1.27 and 2.44

CHANGES IN THE CHEMICAL STRUCTURE OF THERMALLY TREATED WOOD

Changes in the chemical structure of hornbeam and uludag fir woods during thermal treatment were investigated at three temperatures (170, 190, and 210 oC) and three durations (4, 8, and 12 hours). After thermal treatment, the extents of degradation in the chemical structure of the samples were determined, and the effects on the chemical composition of hornbeam wood and uludag fir wood were investigated. The data obtained were analyzed using variance analysis, and Tukey’s test was used to determine the changes in the chemical structure of uludag fir and hornbeam woods. The results showed that heating wood permanently changes several of its chemical structures and that the changes are mainly caused by thermal degradation of wood polymers. It was found that decreasing of the cellulose and holocelluloses ratio had a favorable effect on the interaction of the wood with moisture. According to the obtained results, hornbeam wood is affected more than uludag fir wood. For each wood, the maximum decreases of holocellulose and α-cellulose were found at 210oC for 12 hours, and the maximum increase of lignin occurred at the same treatment combination

Thermodynamic assessment of a novel self-condensing sCO2 recompression system with vortex tube

Low temperature heat sink is required to condense the supercritical CO2 (sCO2) owing to its low critical temperature, this limits the sCO2 power system application. In this paper, a self-condensing sCO2 recompression system with vortex tube is proposed, which achieves the CO2 condensation without the low temperature heat sink and recompression near the critical point in order to improve the system energy and exergy efficiencies. The system performance is investigated from the first and second laws of thermodynamics point of view, and parametric study is conducted to clarify the influences of key design and operation parameters, including the mass flow rate split ratio, the minimum and maximum pressures and temperatures. In a base case scenario with 100 kW power output, the system energy and exergy efficiencies reach 35.50 % and 58.21 % respectively. In the optimum operating condition, the system has the ability to provide 129.80 kW power output with the maximum energy efficiency of 41.90 % and exergy efficiency of 60.89 %

A new generation, promising engineering material: Cubic boron nitride c-BN

In order to meet the design requirements and expanding demands in various engineering fields, it is essential to incorporate new technological improvements in material sciences into existing processes and applications. This involves engineering new material systems and improving existing ones towards higher strength, toughness and wear resistance. In this context, cubic boron nitride c-BN , which is a special polymorph of boron nitride, seems to be a high-potential candidate for engineering solutions due to its great mechanical and chemical properties. In this article, advantages and disadvantages of c-BN material system are presented with respect to our ongoing research efforts. The preliminary results about the characterization study of thin film c-BN coatings with Raman spectroscopy are also presente

Survival Analyses of COVID-19 Patients in a Turkish Cohort: Comparison between Using Time to Death and Time to Release

Survival analyses of COVID-19 data has its own unique features, in particular, the existence of two distinct events: death and release from the hospital within a very short period of time. This multiple-event situation belongs to a type where the occurrence of the first event prevents the second event to happen, and vice versa. We carried out two cause-specific univariate Cox regression survival analyses, one for time-to-death and another for time-to-release. Each survival analysis is further split into one for onset of symptom to event time and another for hospitalization to event time. We have also carried out a case-control (death vs. release) analysis without considering the time to event information. We observed that risk factors can be detected by either case-control or survival analysis, even though the goal of the two is quite different. We also observed that the two survival analyses may not both reveal a factor being a risk factor, but only one of them does. We prefer this two rounds of Cox regressions over mixture cure model which is only focused on time-to-death events which usually are sample size limited. By utilizing time-to-release events may greatly increase the sample size needed for revealing risk factors for COVID-19.   Doi: 10.28991/SciMedJ-2021-03-SI-1 Full Text: PD