Analysis of Organizational Silence Attitudes of Hotel Operations’ Employees by Structural Equation Model: Examplary of Rize Province

The objective of this research is to be able to identify the organization silence attitudes of the employees working at the hotels being operated in the city of Rize. For this purpose, questionnaire was applied to 228 employees functioning at the hotels. The data obtained have been analyzed with LISREL program. As a result of confirmatory factor analysis oriented towards determining the organizational silence behaviors of those who have taken part in the survey, favorable significant differences have been identified among the factors of organizational silence behavior. In this context, it has been determined that the most effective variable of "I think that my managers would not listen to my ideas" at a rate of .84 on the factors of Managerial and Organizational Reasons; at a rate of .83 on the factor of the Work – Related Topics "Public speaking can lead to loss of my job" variable; at the rate of .84 on the factor of Lack of Experience of “Since my position I am in is a lower level, my notification of an idea is disregarded” variable; at a rate of .84 on the factor of Isolation Factor “Reporting an issue may reduce confidence and respect felt to me" and at a rate of .87 on the factor of Fear Regarding Harming the Relationships “When I tell the problems, my relationships are damaged” variable. In addition, it has been observed that the Work – Related Topics factor had an influence at the rate of .93 between the factors of Fear of Isolation and Fear of Damaging the Relationships and the factors of Lack of Experience and Fear of Damaging the Relationships had an impact at the rate of .93 between each other

Isolation and Characterization of Rhizobium Strains from Wild Vetch Collected from High Altitudes in Erzurum-Turkey

WOS: 000275272200012Recently, there has been a growing level of interest in environmental friendly sustainable agricultural practices and organic farming systems. Increasing and extending the role of biofertilizers such as Rhizobium would decrease the need for chemical fertilizers and reduce adverse environmental effects. Thus, in the development and implementation of sustainable agriculture techniques, biofertilization is of big importance in alleviating the deterioration of natural and environmental pollution. Besides, the assessment of rhizobial genetic diversity is contributing both to the worldwide knowledge of the biodiversity of soil microorganisms and to the utility of rhizobial collections. Particularly, in the last decades, the use of molecular techniques has been contributed greatly to enhance the knowledge of rhizobial diversity. This study was conducted in order to determine the phenotypic and genotypic characterization of Rhizobium leguminosarum subsp. viciae strains that were isolaled from perennial wild vetch (Vicia cracca) collected from high attitudes (2000-2500 m) in mountains of Erzurum, Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. In this work, rep-PCR (ERIC-, REP- and BOX-PCR) fingerprinting method was used for the genotypic characterization of R. leguminosarum subsp. viciae strains isolated from perennial wild vetch. As a result, a high intraspecies diversity was observed in the rep-PCR (ERIC-, REP- and BOX-PCR) analysis with BOX, ERIC and REP primers between R. leguminosarum subsp. viciae strains

Mutagenic and antimutagenic properties of some lichen species grown in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey

All the methanol extracts did not show mutagenic activity in Ames/Salmonella and Z. mays MI test systems. Furthermore, some extracts showed significant antimutagenic activity against 9-AA in Ames test system. Inhibition rates for 9-AA mutagenicity ranged from 25.51 % (P. furfuracea – 0.05 μg/plate) to 66.14 % (C. islandica – 0.05 μg/plate). In addition, all of the extracts showed significant antimutagenic activity against sodium azide (NaN₃) mutagenicity on MI values of Z. mays.Целью работы было изучить мутагенный и антимутагенный потенциал метанольных экстрактов Cetraria islandica (L.) Ach. (Parmeliaceae), Pseudevernia furfuracea (L.) Zopf (Parmeliaceae) и Xanthoparmelia somloënsis (Gyeln.) Hale (Parmeliaceae) – лишайников из восточной части Турции. Ни один из экстрактов не показал мутагенной активности в тестах Эймса и Z. mays MI. Более того, некоторые экстракты проявляли заметную антимутагенную активность против 9-амино-акридина в тесте Эймса. Уровень ингибирования варьировал от 25,51 % (P. furfuracea) до 66,14 % (C. islandica). Кроме того, все экстракты проявляли значительную антимутагенную активность против азида натрия в Z. mays MI тесте. Все экстракты могут считаться генотоксично безопасными в исследованных концентрациях

Genotoxic and antigenotoxic assessment of four newly synthesized dihydropyridine derivatives

Abstract The current study aims to determine the genotoxic and antigenotoxic potential of four newly synthesized dihydropyridine derivatives using Escherichia coli WP2 and Ames/Salmonella bacterial reversion assay systems. The bacterial mutant tester strains, E. coli WP2uvrA with a point mutation and Salmonella typhimurium TA1537 with a frameshift mutation, were used to determine genotoxic potentials of the test compounds. To determine antigenotoxic potentials of the test compounds, the same strains were also used together with positive mutagens N-methyl-N 0 -nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) for E. coli WP2uvrA and 9-aminoacridine (9-AA) for S. typhimurium TA1537. According to the results, neither of the test compounds showed significant genotoxic activity on both tester strains at the tested concentrations. However, except compound 4, all the test compounds showed significant antigenotoxic activity on MNNG-or/and 9-AA-induced mutations. The inhibition rates of mutagenesis ranged from 27.0% (compound 2: 2.5 mM/plate) to 65.0% (compound 2: 0.5 mM/ plate) for MNNG and from 30.6% (compound 2: 2 mM/plate) to 58.5% (compound 1: 1 mM/plate) for 9-AA genotoxicity. According to these results, it is concluded that all the test compounds do not have a mutagenic potential on the bacterial strains at the tested concentrations, and some of them have antigenotoxic potentials against MNNG-and 9-AA-induced mutagenesis

Antinociceptive activity of Mentha piperita leaf aqueous extract in mice

Mentha piperita L. (Labiatae) is an herbaceous plant, used in folk medicine for the treatment of several medical disorders.In the present study, the aqueous extract of Mentha piperita leaf, at the i.p doses 200 and 400 mg/kg, showed significant analgesic effects against both acetic acid-induced writhing and hot plate-induced thermal stimulation in mice, with protection values of 51.79% and 20.21% respectively. On the contrary, the Mentha piperita leaf aqueous extract did not exhibit anti-inflammatory activity against carrageenan induced paw oedema.These findings indicate that Mentha piperita has a potential analgesic effect that may possibly have mediated centrally and peripherally, as well as providing a pharmacological evidence for its traditional use as a pain reliever

Chemical Compositions, Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activities of Essential Oils of Piper caninum Blume

Chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the fresh leaves and stems oils of Piper caninum were investigated. A total of forty eight constituents were identified in the leaves (77.9%) and stems (87.0%) oil which were characterized by high proportions of phenylpropanoid, safrole with 17.1% for leaves and 25.5% for stems oil. Antioxidant activities were evaluated by using β-carotene/linoleic acid bleaching, DPPH radical scavenging and total phenolic content. Stems oil showed the highest inhibitory activity towards lipid peroxidation (114.9 ± 0.9%), compared to BHT (95.5 ± 0.5%), while leaves oil showed significant total phenolic content (27.4 ± 0.5 mg GA/g) equivalent to gallic acid. However, the essential oils showed weak activity towards DPPH free-radical scavenging. Evaluation of antimicrobial activity revealed that both oils exhibited strong activity against all bacteria strains with MIC values in the range 62.5 to 250 μg/mL, but weak activity against fungal strains. These findings suggest that the essential oils can be used as antioxidant and antimicrobial agents for therapeutic, nutraceutical industries and food manufactures

AEROSOL SYNTHESIS OF CATHODE MATERIALS FOR NA-ION AND LI-ION BATTERIES

Energy production and storage are important issues that play a key role in our daily lives. There is a need for high energy and high power systems for portable electronic devices and zero-emission vehicles. Lithium-ion batteries are crucial in addressing these needs. However, for the smart electric grid and renewable energy storage where cost is critical but weight and footprint requirement is less important, the sodium-ion battery is the most suitable power sources. To achieve both high power density and high energy density, nanostructured sphere particles with controlled porosity and high tapping density are desired for both Li-ion and Na-ion batteries. The versatile and facile ultrasonic spray pyrolysis method allows for the synthesis of a variety of electrode materials with sphere morphology. Work has been done to develop electrode materials through an aerosol method that can be readily applied to industry. Two classes of high energy cathodes suitable for lithium-ion batteries were studied. These include the 5V spinels and lithium-rich materials. The 5V spinels are a promising class of electrodes for secondary lithium batteries. This class of material has the highest intrinsic rate capability of the intercalation cathodes with high safety, low toxicity, and low cost making it ideal for high-power applications such as electric vehicles, while the lithium-rich compounds exhibit high capacity and reasonable cycle stability. Two classes of stable cathodes suitable for sodium-ion batteries were studied. The first was carbon coated porous hollow Na2FePO4F spheres with 500 nm diameter and 80 nm wall thickness synthesized by a one-step template-free ultrasonic spray pyrolysis process using sucrose as the carbon source. Nano-sized porous hollow Na2FePO4F spheres allow electrolyte to penetrate into the hollow structure, and thus the electrochemical reaction can take place on both the outside and inside surface and in the pores. Also, the carbon coating on Na2FePO4F hollow spheres enhances the electronic conductivity and charge transfer reaction kinetics. The exceptional performance of hollow Na2FePO4F spheres combined with mature aerosol spray synthesis technology make these carbon coated porous hollow Na2FePO4F spheres very promising as cathode materials for practical applications in Na-ion batteries. Finally, P2-type earth abundant layered oxides with high energy density and long cycling stability were also developed and studied. These layered materials were investigated due to their high theoretical capacity. A novel ultrasonic spray pyrolysis system has been developed to effectively coat any cathode, including layered oxides, with a thin layer of carbon to improve the kinetics and increase the electronic conductivity. The residence time in air is sufficiently short to allow the decomposition of the carbon source (sucrose) without further reduction of the cathode material. A vertical configuration allows the solid particles to reach the filter for collection with high efficiency. As a test sample, lithium-rich cathodes have been successfully carbon coated and compared with the bare material

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oils from the medicinal plant Mentha cervina L. grown in Portugal

Mentha cervina is a medicinal plant traditionally used in Portugal in folk medicine, in different gastric disorders and inflammations of the respiratory tract. In order to validate those traditional uses, M. cervina essential oils (EOs) were characterized by GC and GC–MS and their antimicrobial activity was tested against 23 bacterial strains (including multiresistant strains). The EOs were dominated by the monoterpenes pulegone (52–75%), isomenthone (8–24%), limonene (4–6%), and menthone (1–2%). The antibacterial activity of these EOs was compared to that of the main components standards. The most effective antibacterial activity was expressed by the EOs against the Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Acinetobacter baumanni, with MIC values of 1 mg/ml. The EOs complex mixtures were more active than the individual aromatic components supporting the hypothesis that the EOs antibacterial activity is a function of the synergistic effect of their different aromatic components. These results show the potential role of M. cervina EOs as antibacterial agents and validate the traditional use of this plant