The role of traditional livelihood practices and local ethnobotanical knowledge in mitigating chestnut disease and pest severity in Turkey

The European chestnut population is enduring multiple compounding exotic pest and disease outbreaks across Turkey. The deeply held value of the chestnut species for the Turkish public is reflected in substantial government conservation programming. Chestnut is predominantly found on state land managed by Turkey’s General Directorate of Forestry (GDF), which generally upholds restrictive policies for chestnut-related livelihood practices other than nut collection and beehive placement. Such policies are justified by a government position that human activities and presence is likely to worsen disease dynamics. Conversely, a growing body of research findings testify that small-scale livelihood practices maintain biological diversity and, furthermore, that this traditional maintenance of diversity has been correlated with decreased pathogen pressure within agroecosystems. However, few studies have investigated this phenomenon in the context of agroforestry systems. At a global ecological moment of increasingly pervasive and severe exotic forest pathogen impact, this paper investigates the influence of diverse small-scale livelihood practices and knowledge on chestnut tree health across the highly heterogenous geography of Turkey. We conducted ethnobotanical questionnaires with 96 chestnut-utilizing households, and chestnut tree health evaluations in georeferenced forest areas they identified, throughout Turkey’s Black Sea, Marmara, and Aegean regions. Using data from 1500 trees, we characterized the effects of subsequently recorded environmental, physiological, and anthropogenic factors on tree health using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), multiple factor analysis (MFA), and mixed models. Our results show that the traditional human management of tree physiology and ecology has a significant positive effect on tree health, especially through the acts of grafting and culling as well as the maintenance of diversity. We argue that conceptualizing such livelihood systems as human niche construction and maintenance can help forest management agencies to better understand and conserve valuable landscapes, even in increasingly common periods of severe pathogenic pressure

Fire detection and 3D fire propagation estimation for the protection of cultural heritage areas

Beyond taking precautionary measures to avoid a forest fire, early warning and immediate response to a fire breakout are the only ways to avoid great losses and environmental and cultural heritage damages. To this end, this paper aims to present a computer vision based algorithm for wildfire detection and a 3D fire propagation estimation system. The main detection algorithm is composed of four sub-algorithms detecting (i) slow moving objects, (ii) smoke-coloured regions, (iii) rising regions, and (iv) shadow regions. After detecting a wildfire, the main focus should be the estimation of its propagation direction and speed. If the model of the vegetation and other important parameters like wind speed, slope, aspect of the ground surface, etc. are known; the propagation of fire can be estimated. This propagation can then be visualized in any 3D-GIS environment that supports KML files

Egypt’s 2011–2012 parliamentary elections: Voting for religious vs. secular democracy?

This study investigates whether individuals’ attitudes towards democracy and secular politics have any influence on voting behavior in Egypt. Based on data from a survey conducted immediately after the Egyptian parliamentary elections in January 2012, this study finds that Egyptians’ attitudes towards democratic governance were quite negative around the parliamentary elections, yet Egyptians still endorsed democracy as the ideal political system for their country. However, empirical findings suggest that support for democracy has a limited impact on electoral results. On the other hand, the main division in Egyptian society around the first free and fair parliamentary elections was the religious-secular cleavage. As people support secular politics more, they become significantly less likely to vote for Islamist parties. These results illustrate that preferences in regard to the type of democracy – either a liberal and secular or a religious democracy – were the main determinant of the historic 2012 elections in Egypt

Disease avoidance motives trade-off against social motives, especially mate-seeking, to predict social distancing: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic

A range of studies have sought to understand why people's compliance with social distancing varied during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent theory suggests that pathogen avoidance behavior is based not only on perceived risk but on a trade-off between the perceived costs of pathogen exposure and the perceived benefits of social contact. We hypothesized that compliance with social distancing may therefore be explained by a trade-off between pathogen avoidance and various social motives such as mate-seeking. Two studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that social distancing was positively associated with disease avoidance motives but negatively associated with social motives, especially mating motives. These associations remained after controlling for predictors identified by previous research, including risk perception and personality. Findings indicate that people who are more interested in seeking new romantic partners (e.g., young men) may be less inclined to socially distance and be more at risk of pathogen transmission

Diagnostic approach of tuberculous lymphadenitis in a multicenter study

Introduction: Tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) is the most common infectious etiology of peripheral lymphadenopathy in adults, in Turkiye. This study aimed to identify the demographic, clinical, and laboratory variables that differentiate TBLN from non-tuberculous lymphadenitis (NTBLN), as well as the etiology of lymphadenopathy in adults. Methodology: Patients who were over 18 years old and were referred to the infectious disease outpatient clinics with complaints of swollen peripheral lymph nodes, and who underwent lymph node biopsy between 1 January 2010 and 1 March 2021, were included in this multicenter, nested case-control study. Results: A total of 812 patients at 17 tertiary teaching and research hospitals in Turkiye were included in the study. TBLN was the most frequent diagnosis (53.69%). The proportion of patients diagnosed with TBLN was higher among females; and among those who had a higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate, positive purified protein derivative test, and positive interferon-gamma release test result (p < 0.05). However, TBLN was less frequent among patients with generalized lymphadenopathy, bilateral lymphadenopathy, axillary lymphadenopathy, inguinal lymphadenopathy, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, leukocytosis, and moderately increased C reactive protein levels (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Identifying the variables that predict TBLN or discriminate TBLN from NTBLN will help clinicians establish optimal clinical strategies for the diagnosis of adult lymphadenopathy

Training medical specialists to communicate better with patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS). A randomized, controlled trial

Background Patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) are prevalent 25-50% in general and specialist care. Medical specialists and residents often find patients without underlying pathology difficult to deal with, whereas patients sometimes don't feel understood. We developed an evidence-based communication training, aimed to improve specialists' interviewing, information-giving and planning skills in MUPS consultations, and tested its effectiveness. Methods The intervention group in this multi-center randomized controlled trial received a 14-hour training program to which experiential learning and feedback were essential. Using techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, they were stimulated to seek interrelating factors (symptoms, cognitions, emotions, behavior, and social environment) that reinforced a patient's symptoms. They were taught to

Associated Charm Production in Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions

In this paper a search for associated charm production both in neutral and charged current $\nu$-nucleus interactions is presented. The improvement of automatic scanning systems in the {CHORUS} experiment allows an efficient search to be performed in emulsion for short-lived particles. Hence a search for rare processes, like the associated charm production, becomes possible through the observation of the double charm-decay topology with a very low background. About 130,000 $\nu$ interactions located in the emulsion target have been analysed. Three events with two charm decays have been observed in the neutral-current sample with an estimated background of 0.18$\pm$0.05. The relative rate of the associated charm cross-section in deep inelastic $\nu$ interactions, $\sigma(c\bar{c}\nu)/\sigma_\mathrm{NC}^\mathrm{DIS}= (3.62^{+2.95}_{-2.42}({stat})\pm 0.54({syst}))\times 10^{-3}$ has been measured. One event with two charm decays has been observed in charged-current $\nu_\mu$ interactions with an estimated background of 0.18$\pm$0.06 and the upper limit on associated charm production in charged-current interactions at 90% C.L. has been found to be $\sigma (c\bar{c} \mu^-)/\sigma_\mathrm{CC} < 9.69 \times 10^{-4}$.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Leading order analysis of neutrino induced dimuon events in the CHORUS experiment

We present a leading order QCD analysis of a sample of neutrino induced charged-current events with two muons in the final state originating in the lead-scintillating fibre calorimeter of the CHORUS detector. The results are based on a sample of 8910 neutrino and 430 antineutrino induced opposite-sign dimuon events collected during the exposure of the detector to the CERN Wide Band Neutrino Beam between 1995 and 1998. % with $E_{\mu 1},E_{\mu 2} > 5$ GeV and $Q^2 > 3$ GeV$^2$ collected %between 1995 and 1998. The analysis yields a value of the charm quark mass of \mc = (1.26\pm 0.16 \pm 0.09) \GeVcc and a value of the ratio of the strange to non-strange sea in the nucleon of $\kappa = 0.33 \pm 0.05 \pm 0.05$, improving the results obtained in similar analyses by previous experiments.Comment: Submitted to Nuclear Physics

Charged-Particle Multiplicities in Charged-Current Neutrino-- and Anti-Neutrino--Nucleus Interactions

The CHORUS experiment, designed to search for $\nu_{\mu}\to\nu_{\tau}$ oscillations, consists of a nuclear emulsion target and electronic detectors. In this paper, results on the production of charged particles in a small sample of charged-current neutrino-- and anti-neutrino--nucleus interactions at high energy are presented. For each event, the emission angle and the ionization features of the charged particles produced in the interaction are recorded, while the standard kinematic variables are reconstructed using the electronic detectors. The average multiplicities for charged tracks, the pseudo-rapidity distributions, the dispersion in the multiplicity of charged particles and the KNO scaling are studied in different kinematical regions. A study of quasi-elastic topologies performed for the first time in nuclear emulsions is also reported. The results are presented in a form suitable for use in the validation of Monte Carlo generators of neutrino--nucleus interactions.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure