Why Turkey should join the European Union: arguments in favor of Turkish membership

"One of the main objectives of the Turkish foreign policy is to integrate Turkey in the European Union. Over the last decades Turkey has unsuccessfully tried to join European Union. For various reasons (economic, political and social), European leaders have blocked the attempts of Turkey to join European Union. There is a widespread belief in Europe that Turkish membership poses a threat to the stability and security of the European Union. This article explains why Europe needs Turkey and why Turkey's integration into Euro-Atlantic structures should not be seen as a danger but as an opportunity for economic progress and development of Europe." (author's abstract

Political relations between Turkey and Georgia in the post-soviet era

Georgia and Turkey has become important partners in the Caucasus region after independence of Georgia in 1991. Two countries preferred to follow pro-West policies in their foreign policy against Russian factor. They have geopolitical importance and geostrategic location for Russia throughout history. This article analyzes foreign policies of Georgia and Turkey and examines Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline as a common foreign policy between them. The paper found out that this kind of projects between Georgia and Turkey would make them important actors rising from regional level to global level in the future

Cytocompatibility of Novel Algae-PLA Membranes For Guided Bone Regeneration At The Level of Types I, III And V Collagen Expression

Statement of the problem: In recent years, the development of innovative and increasingly optimized barrier membranes has focused on marine algae, which as a biopolymer can form a membrane composite together with polylactic acid, thus a combination could show numerous advantages such as antioxidant, antitumor, antibacterial, antiviral as well as antiallergic properties. Furthermore, algae can be produced in an ecologically sustainable way and offer an alternative for patients who refuse treatment with bovine or porcine derived membranes due to ethical or religious reasons.Objective: In this study, four different algal membranes were evaluated for their cytocompatibility with cultured human fibroblasts and osteoblasts.Materials & Methods: Mem-Lok® (Collagen Matrix, New Jersey, USA) as a resorbable collagen membrane and ArgonautTM (Botiss Biomaterials, Zossen, Germany) as a native pericardium GBR/GTR membrane served as reference membranes (RMs). As the negative control cells incubated with normal culture medium only were used. In addition to the cell viability and proliferation assays water soluble tetrazolium (WST), MTT and BrdU, a real time semiquantitative real time PCR (RT-PCR) was developed to investigate in vitro cytocompatibility at the level of types I, III and V collagen expression. A sandblasted- large grid-acid ached titanium surface (Dentcon® Dental Implant Systems, Ankara, Turkey) served as a positive inactive control group for osteoblastic cytocompatibility.Results: For human osteoblasts, the algal membranes showed very good proliferation levels in WST-1, MTT as well as BrdU, indicating cytocompatibility. Examination of the expression behavior of type I, type III, and type V collagen genes showed no evaluable results. However, the RT-PCR should be repeated with the incorporated optimizations to be able to make a statement regarding the success of bone, skin, and connective tissue regeneration after a possible application of the membrane in maxillofacial injury treatment.Conclusion: The investigated collagen types are essential for a proper healing of defects in both soft and bone tissue, as they have fundamental functions such as stability and structural integrity of the tissues

Initiated Chemical Vapor Deposition (iCVD) Functionalized Polylactic Acid-Marine Algae Composite Patch for Bone Tissue Engineering

The current study aimed to describe the fabrication of a composite patch by incorporating marine algae powders (MAPs) into poly-lactic acid (PLA) for bone tissue engineering. The prepared composite patch was functionalized with the co-polymer, poly (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) (p(HEMA-co-EGDMA)) via initiated chemical vapor deposition (iCVD) to improve its wettability and overall biocompatibility. The iCVD functionalized MAP-PLA composite patch showed superior cell interaction of human osteoblasts. Following the surface functionalization by p(HEMA-co-EGDMA) via the iCVD technique, a highly hydrophilic patch was achieved without tailoring any morphological and structural properties. Moreover, the iCVD modified composite patch exhibited ideal cell adhesion for human osteoblasts, thus making the proposed patch suitable for potential biomedical applications including bone tissue engineering, especially in the fields of dentistry and orthopedy

Marine Algae Incorporated Polylactide Acid Patch: Novel Candidate for Targeting Osteosarcoma Cells without Impairing the Osteoblastic Proliferation

Biodegradable collagen-based materials have been preferred as scaffolds and grafts for diverse clinical applications in density and orthopedy. Besides the advantages of using such bio-originated materials, the use of collagen matrices increases the risk of infection transmission through the cells or the tissues of the graft/scaffold. In addition, such collagen-based solutions are not counted as economically feasible approaches due to their high production cost. In recent years, incorporation of marine algae in synthetic polymers has been considered as an alternative method for preparation grafts/scaffolds since they represent abundant and cheap source of potential biopolymers. Current work aims to propose a novel composite patch prepared by blending Sargassum vulgare powders (SVP) to polylactide (PLA) as an alternative to the porcine-derived membranes. SVP-PLA composite patches were produced by using a modified solvent casting method. Following detailed material characterization to assess the cytocompatibility, human osteoblasts (HOBs) and osteosarcoma cells (SaOS-2) were seeded on neat PLA and SVP-PLA patches. MTT and BrdU assays indicated a greater cytocompatibility and higher proliferation for HOBs cultured on SVP-PLA composite than for those cultured on neat PLA. SaOS-2 cells cultured on SVP-PLA exhibited a significant decrease in cell proliferation. The composite patch described herein exhibits an antiproliferative effect against SaOS-2 cells without impairing HOBs' adhesion and proliferation

Electrically controlled drug release of donepezil and BiFeO3 magnetic nanoparticle-loaded PVA microbubbles/nanoparticles for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease

Nanocarriers are used to deliver bioactive substances in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). These nanocarriers have shown many benefits over traditional treatments due to their properties such as efficient distribution and controlled release of bioactive material to the brain and loading of various drugs simultaneously. In this study, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), PVA/bismuth ferrite (BiFeO3), and PVA/BiFeO3/donepezil hydrochloride (DO) monodisperse polymeric nanoparticles were manufactured with bursting microbubbles by a T-junction device. Here, BiFeO3 nanoparticles were synthesized by the co-precipitation method, and these magnetic nanoparticles and DO were loaded in PVA nanoparticles. Nanoparticles had a smooth and monodisperse structure according to SEM images. Also, the diameters of PVA, PVA/BiFeO3, and PVA/BiFeO3/DO nanoparticles were 148 ± 15 nm, 159 ± 21 nm, and 164 ± 12 nm, respectively. It was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy that BiFeO3 magnetic nanoparticles and DO were successfully loaded into nanoparticles produced with PVA. There was no cytotoxic effect on healthy L929 cells for all nanoparticle samples. A systematic electrical circuit has been established to investigate the electrically controlled release behaviour of PVA/BiFeO3/DO nanoparticles at different voltages (0 V, −1.0 V, −0.5 V, +0.5 V, +1.0 V), different currents (−50 μA, −100 μA, −200 μA, and −300 μA), and 200 rpm. To apply electric stimulus increased the release except for +1.0 V and the release of DO increased at more negative voltages with a total release of 68.9% of DO after 15 stimulus with −1.0 V. Higher R2 values were obtained with the Higuchi model for almost all conditions and DO was released from nanoparticles through the non-Fickian diffusion mechanism (0.45 < n < 1). The possibility of affecting the release of DO by modifying the current and voltage in the presence of BiFeO3 leads to an immensely controllable and delicately tunable drug release for AD treatment. © 202