Physicochemical, toxicological and ecological analysis of Gökçekaya Dam Lake

Dams built to supply electricity, irrigation and fresh water, change the characteristics of the region they are located. The ecological, limnological characteristics and the quality of water in the dam reservoir deteriorate with time. In this study, the physicochemical, toxicological and ecological parameters of Gökçekaya Dam Lake’s water, which is situated on Sakarya River were examined. The selected area has different characteristics from the others. This lake is situated between two other dam lakes on Sakarya River. So the main water of the lake comes from Sakarya Dam. During the years 2005-2006, water samples were taken from the lake surface and depths in seasonal periods, and the physical, chemical and biological parameters were examined to determine the modifications in the quality of water. It was seen that while the quality had no certain differences, the level of the nutrients in the water was low. The different characteristics of the coming water enriched the varieties of algae. It was concluded thatthe structure of the water in Gökçekaya Dam Lake is mezotrophic

Human Detection and Segmentation via Multi-View Consensus

Self-supervised detection and segmentation of foreground objects aims for accuracy without annotated training data. However, existing approaches predominantly rely on restrictive assumptions on appearance and motion. For scenes with dynamic activities and camera motion, we propose a multi-camera framework in which geometric constraints are embedded in the form of multi-view consistency during training via coarse 3D localization in a voxel grid and fine-grained offset regression. In this manner, we learn a joint distribution of proposals over multiple views. At inference time, our method operates on single RGB images. We outperform state-of-the-art techniques both on images that visually depart from those of standard benchmarks and on those of the classical Human3.6M dataset

The tourism and economic growth enigma: Examining an ambiguous relationship through multiple prisms

This paper revisits the ambiguous relationship between tourism and economic growth, providing a comprehensive study of destinations across the globe which takes into account the key dynamics that influence tourism and economic performance. We focus on 113 countries over the period 1995-2014, clustered, for the first time, around six criteria that reflect their economic, political and tourism dimensions. A Panel Vector Autoregressive model is employed which, in contrast to previous studies, allows the data to reveal any tourism-economy interdependencies across these clusters, without imposing a priori the direction of causality. Overall, the economic-driven tourism growth hypothesis seems to prevail in countries which are developing, non-democratic, highly bureaucratic and have low tourism specialization. Conversely, bidirectional relationships are established for economies which are stronger, democratic and with higher levels of government effectiveness. Thus, depending on the economic, political and tourism status of a destination, different policy implications apply

Antimicrobial activity against oral pathogens and immunomodulatory effects and toxicity of geopropolis produced by the stingless bee Melipona fasciculata Smith

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Native bees of the tribe Meliponini produce a distinct kind of propolis called geopropolis. Although many pharmacological activities of propolis have already been demonstrated, little is known about geopropolis, particularly regarding its antimicrobial activity against oral pathogens. The present study aimed at investigating the antimicrobial activity of <it>M. fasciculata </it>geopropolis against oral pathogens, its effects on <it>S. mutans </it>biofilms, and the chemical contents of the extracts. A gel prepared with a geopropolis extract was also analyzed for its activity on <it>S. mutans </it>and its immunotoxicological potential.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Antimicrobial activities of three hydroalcoholic extracts (HAEs) of geopropolis, and hexane and chloroform fractions of one extract, were evaluated using the agar diffusion method and the broth dilution technique. Ethanol (70%, v/v) and chlorhexidine (0.12%, w/w) were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. Total phenol and flavonoid concentrations were assayed by spectrophotometry. Immunotoxicity was evaluated in mice by topical application in the oral cavity followed by quantification of biochemical and immunological parameters, and macro-microscopic analysis of animal organs.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two extracts, HAE-2 and HAE-3, showed inhibition zones ranging from 9 to 13 mm in diameter for <it>S. mutans </it>and <it>C. albicans</it>, but presented no activity against <it>L</it>. <it>acidophilus</it>. The MBCs for HAE-2 and HAE-3 against <it>S. mutans </it>were 6.25 mg/mL and 12.5 mg/mL, respectively. HAE-2 was fractionated, and its chloroform fraction had an MBC of 14.57 mg/mL. HAE-2 also exhibited bactericidal effects on <it>S. mutans </it>biofilms after 3 h of treatment. Significant differences (p < 0.05) in total phenol and flavonoid concentrations were observed among the samples. Signs toxic effects were not observed after application of the geopropolis-based gel, but an increase in the production of IL-4 and IL-10, anti-inflammatory cytokines, was detected.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In summary, geopropolis produced by <it>M. fasciculata </it>can exert antimicrobial action against <it>S. mutans </it>and <it>C. albicans</it>, with significant inhibitory activity against <it>S. mutans </it>biofilms. The extract with the highest flavonoid concentration, HAE-2, presented the highest antimicrobial activity. In addition, a geopropolis-based gel is not toxic in an animal model and displays anti-inflammatory effect.</p

Tourism and Economic Globalization: An Emerging Research Agenda

Globalization characterizes the economic, social, political, and cultural spheres of the modern world. Tourism has long been claimed as a crucial force shaping globalization, while in turn the developments of the tourism sector are under the influences of growing interdependence across the world. As globalization proceeds, destination countries have become more and more susceptible to local and global events. By linking the existing literature coherently, this study explores a number of themes on economic globalization in tourism. It attempts to identify the forces underpinning globalization and assess the implications on both the supply side and the demand side of the tourism sector. In view of a lack of quantitative evidence, future directions for empirical research have been suggested to investigate the interdependence of tourism demand, the convergence of tourism productivity, and the impact of global events

Antimicrobial effect of natural dyes on some pathogenic bacteria

In this study we have detected the antimicrobial activity of four natural dyes (obtained from Rubia tinctorum, Allium cepa, Punica granatum L and Mentha sp.) on Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Shigella sonnei RSKK 877, Escherichia coli ATCC 35218, Bacillus megaterium RSKK 5117, Bacillus subtilis RSKK 244, Bacillus cereus RSKK 863, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 29212, Streptococcus epidermidis, Salmonella 21.3 and P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853. P. granatum dye was most effective against the test bacteria except E. coli and S. epidermidis. The textile material impregnated with four natural dyes and maximum inhibition rates (respectivelly, 80, 86, 52%) were obtained against B. subtilis of wool samples dyed with P. granatum, A. cepa and R. tinctorum while maximum inhibition rates (91%) was found against P. aeruginosa of wool sample dyed with R. tinctorum

Recovery of unburned carbonaceous matter (UCM) from sugar mill bottom ash

Millions of tons of coal fly and bottom ash are produced each year in many countries including Turkey. Coal combustion which is the main source of energy in sugar mill and many other industries produce massive quantities of waste. The present study aims to separate the unburned carbonaceous matter (UCM) from the bottom ash of Bor, Nigde-Turkey sugar plant has been studied using the mechanical flotation technique. For this purpose, the performances of three classical oils were investigated and then chemical parameters such as sodium silicate (Na 2 SiO 3 ), collector (fuel-oil) and frother (pine-oil) were systematically examined by using Yates’ statistical technique. A product with 41.58% combustible grade at 87.44% recovery was obtained at 0 g/t sodium silicate, 7464 g/t fuel-oil, 888 g/t pine-oil, 15% pulp density, 1200 rpm impeller speed and natural pH. The results obtained from the experiments indicated that it was possible to enrich the bottom ash by using conventional flotation. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC