Ecological properties and close relationships of some Scilla L. Taxa (asparagaceae) in Turkey

Ecological properties of some Scilla L. taxa [S. bifolia L., S. melaina Speta, S. siberica Haw. subsp. armena (Grossh.) Mordak, S. leepii Speta, S. ingridae Speta, S. mesopotamica Speta, S. autumnalis L., S. monanthos C. Koch., S. rosenii C. Koch. and S. cilicica Siehe] were compared and relationships among taxa were determined. S.leepii and S. mesopotamica are endemic to Turkey. Because of various reasons, S. melaina, S. leepii, S. ingridae, S. mesopotamica, S. monanthos, S. siberica subsp. armena, S. rosenii and S. cilicica have limited distribution in Turkey. The investigated taxa have fragrant flowers, so are used as ornamental plant in gardens, parks and balconies in Turkey. Soil samples of the taxa were taken in flowering periods and physical and chemical properties (texture class, % of total salinity, pH, % of CaCO3, % of organic matter, % of total N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn, Cu, Fe and Zn (in mg/kg) were determined. According to the similarities and differences in ecological characteristics, the taxa were divided into four groups. 1st group: S. melaina, S. leepii, S. ingridae and S. mesopotamica; 2nd group: S. siberica subsp. armena and S. cilicica; 3rd group: S. bifolia and S. autumnalis; 4th group: S. rosenii and S. monanthos. From the data, it has been found that organic matter, N, P, K, Ca, Fe and Zn values are more effective than the other soil factors in the distributions of the investigated taxa. © 2018 Friends Science Publishers

Comparative leaf and scape anatomy of some Scilla taxa in Turkey

Comparative anatomical study on eight Scilla taxa (S. bifolia, S. melaina, S. siberica subsp. armena, S. leepii, S. ingridae, S. mesopotamica, S. autumnalis and S. cilicica) growing in Turkey was made using light microscopy techniques. Leaf and scape anatomical properties of the taxa were compared and relationships among taxa were determined. In anatomical studies, paraffin method was used. The cross-sections of the scape, leaves and surface-sections the leaves of these taxa were taken and photographed. Length and width measurements of stomata in the upper and lower surfaces of leaves were made and the mean and standard devition values of stomata were calculated. Raphida crystals were found in the mesophyll of all taxa. On both surfaces of leaves, anomocytic type stomata were observed. The different and similar anatomical characters in the leaf and scape were determined and the taxa were classified into three groups; such as (1) S. ingridae, S. mesopotamica, S. melaina, and S. leepii are independent species with close relationships; (2) S. bifolia, S. siberica subsp. armena and S.cilicica are very close taxa; (3) S. autumnalis is different from other investigated taxa. Also, these taxa can be distinguished as mesophyll type; isolateral (S. bifolia, S. cilicica and S. siberica subsp. armena) and unifacial (S. melaina, S.leepii, S. ingridae, S. mesopotamica and S. autumnalis). According to our data, S. bifolia was considered as a complex species of Scilla genus in Turkey. © 2016 Friends Science Publishers

Multiple Instance Learning for Heterogeneous Images: Training a CNN for Histopathology

Multiple instance (MI) learning with a convolutional neural network enables end-to-end training in the presence of weak image-level labels. We propose a new method for aggregating predictions from smaller regions of the image into an image-level classification by using the quantile function. The quantile function provides a more complete description of the heterogeneity within each image, improving image-level classification. We also adapt image augmentation to the MI framework by randomly selecting cropped regions on which to apply MI aggregation during each epoch of training. This provides a mechanism to study the importance of MI learning. We validate our method on five different classification tasks for breast tumor histology and provide a visualization method for interpreting local image classifications that could lead to future insights into tumor heterogeneity

Comparison of morphological and anatomical properties of endangered endemic Iris pamphylica and I. masia in Turkey

In this paper, morphological and anatomical properties of Iris pamphylica and Iris masia were compared and the degrees of relationship among them were determined. Also, morphological and anatomical properties of the two subspecies (I. masia subsp. masia and I. masia subsp. dumaniana) of I. masia were detected. I. pamphylica and subsp. dumaniana are endangered endemic geophytes of Turkey. Morphological properties of various organs of the taxa such as scape, bulb, rhizomes, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds were given. Subsp. dumaniana is separated from subsp. masia with the differences of falls, standards, colour styles and vein colours. In anatomical studies, cross-sections of roots, scapes, leaves and surface sections of the leaves of these taxa were taken. Some different (the structure of pith region and xylem strands numbers in the roots, vascular bundles and micropapilla status in the scapes, leaf outline structure, the presence of sclerenchyma cap at phloem poles of vascular bundles in the scape, extends to both epidermis of sclerenchyma cap, absence and presence of keels, layer numbers of palisade and spongy parenchyma and the presence of bulliform cells in the upper epidermis of leaves) and similar characters (three-sided thickening of the endodermal cells, stomata and mesophyll types, there is sclerenchyma cap in the vascular bundles of leaf and at the corner of the leaf, there is sheath bundle around the vascular bundles, the cells in the centre of mesophyll and crystal types and there are two rows of the vascular bundles in the mesophyll) were found. Length and width of stomata in the upper and lower surfaces of leaves were measured and stomata index were calculated. The leaves of taxa have xeromorphic structure. Many differences were seen in the anatomical and morphological characters of I. masia subsp. dumaniana. So, it was suggested that I. masia subsp. dumaniana might be upgraded to the species category

Intense, carrier frequency and bandwidth tunable quasi single-cycle pulses from an organic emitter covering the Terahertz frequency gap

In Terahertz (THz) science, one of the long-standing challenges has been the formation of spectrally dense, single-cycle pulses with tunable duration and spectrum across the frequency range of 0.1-15 THz (THz gap). This frequency band, lying between the electronically and optically accessible spectra hosts important molecular fingerprints and collective modes which cannot be fully controlled by present strong-field THz sources. We present a method that provides powerful single-cycle THz pulses in the THz gap with a stable absolute phase whose duration can be continuously selected between 68 fs and 1100 fs. The loss-free and chirp-free technique is based on optical rectification of a wavelength-tunable pump pulse in the organic emitter HMQ-TMS that allows for tuning of the spectral bandwidth from 1 to more than 7 octaves over the entire THz gap. The presented source tunability of the temporal carrier frequency and spectrum expands the scope of spectrally dense THz sources to time-resolved nonlinear THz spectroscopy in the entire THz gap. This opens new opportunities towards ultrafast coherent control over matter and light

Phosphate Solubilization Potentials of Acinetobacter Strains and their Relations with Soil Properties

Phosphate solubilizing bacteria can be used as soil or seed inoculum to increase soil phosphorus (P) availability for agricultural purposes. There is also a possibility of using these microorganisms to biotechnologically dissolve phosphate ores for the production of phosphorus fertilizers. Twenty-one soil samples were collected along a highway in Turkey to isolate phosphate solubilizing bacteria. A total of 20 phosphate solubilizers were isolated from the rhizosphere of wheat and maize grown in the pots, which contained the collected soil samples. The isolates were distributed among the genera, Acinetobacter (7), Pseudomonas (7), Enterobacter (2), Enterococcus (1), Escherichia (1), Photorhabdus (1), and Bacillus (1) as determined by the 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis. Since the Acinetobacter species were most effective in Pikovskaya’s agar, which contained tricalcium phosphate for the sole P-source, they were further experimented for the phosphate solubilization in batch cultures. The mean phosphorus dissolved in 5 day incubation ranged between 167 and 1022 ppm P. The initial pH of 7.8 dropped below 4.7 in six isolates with a gluconic acid production in the concentrations ranging between 27.5 and 37.5 mM. Acinetobacter isolates have some potential as an inoculum both for soil and biotechnological Psolubilization

Strategic alignment and new product development: Drivers and performance effects

Strategic alignment is widely accepted as a prerequisite for a firm's success, but insight into the role of alignment in, and its impact on, the new product development (NPD) process and its performance is less well developed. Most publications on this topic either focus on one form of alignment or on one or a limited set of NPD performance indicators. Furthermore, different and occasionally contradictory findings have been reported. NPD scholars have long argued for the importance of fit between context and NPD activities. However, this body of literature suffers from the same weakness: most publications have a limited scope and the findings are not always consistent with results reported previously. This study addresses these deficiencies by examining (1) the effects of various internal and external factors on different forms of alignment, and (2) the effects of these forms of alignment on a set of NPD performance indicators. Strategic planning and innovativeness appear to affect technological, market, and NPD-marketing alignment positively. Environmental munificence is negatively associated with NPD-marketing alignment, but has no effect on the two other forms of alignment. Technological change has a positive effect on technological alignment, a negative effect on NPD-marketing alignment, but no effect on market alignment. These findings suggest that internal capabilities are more likely to be associated with the development of strategic alignment than environmental factors are. Furthermore, technological and NPD-marketing alignment affect NPD performance positively, while market alignment does not have any significant performance effects. © 2012 Product Development & Management Association