Economic importance of Gypsophila L., Ankyropetalum Fenzl and Saponaria L. (Caryophyllaceae) taxa of Turkey

Gypsophila L. is the third biggest genus of Caryophyllaceae family in Turkey. The genus has 55 species in the country. 33 species are endemics and total number of the taxa is 58. Ankyropetalum Fenzl is a small genus with 3 species and 1 of them is endemic. Saponaria L. has 20 taxa of 18 species and 10 taxa of them are endemics to Turkey. Turkey is the gene center of all the genera. All of the genera are known as coven, female coven and halva root and developed roots or rhizomes are economically very important. Extract produced from the roots are known as fire extinguisher, gold polishing, cleaner and softener of delicate fabrics and crispness giving to halva. The extracts are often used for making liqueur, herbal cheese, ice cream and some foods. Some taxa are Boron (B) hyperacumulators, so they can be planted and used for destroyed agriculture to control erosion. Gypsophila paniculata L. is very important in horticulture. Gypsophila bicolor, Gypsophila arrostii, Gypsophila perfoliata, Ankyropetalum gypsophiloides and Saponaria officinalis L. are very important because of their saponin contents. In this paper, economic importance of the plants in the light of our observations and literatures was given.Key words: Gypsophila, Ankyropetalum, Saponaria, economy, saponin

Commutators, Lefschetz fibrations and the signatures of surface bundles

We construct examples of Lefschetz fibrations with prescribed singular fibers. By taking differences of pairs of such fibrations with the same singular fibers, we obtain new examples of surface bundles over surfaces with non-zero signature. From these we derive new upper bounds for the minimal genus of a surface representing a given element in the second homology of a mapping class group.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Topolog

Quantum SU(2) faithfully detects mapping class groups modulo center

The Jones-Witten theory gives rise to representations of the (extended) mapping class group of any closed surface Y indexed by a semi-simple Lie group G and a level k. In the case G=SU(2) these representations (denoted V_A(Y)) have a particularly simple description in terms of the Kauffman skein modules with parameter A a primitive 4r-th root of unity (r=k+2). In each of these representations (as well as the general G case), Dehn twists act as transformations of finite order, so none represents the mapping class group M(Y) faithfully. However, taken together, the quantum SU(2) representations are faithful on non-central elements of M(Y). (Note that M(Y) has non-trivial center only if Y is a sphere with 0, 1, or 2 punctures, a torus with 0, 1, or 2 punctures, or the closed surface of genus = 2.) Specifically, for a non-central h in M(Y) there is an r_0(h) such that if r>= r_0(h) and A is a primitive 4r-th root of unity then h acts projectively nontrivially on V_A(Y). Jones' [J] original representation rho_n of the braid groups B_n, sometimes called the generic q-analog-SU(2)-representation, is not known to be faithful. However, we show that any braid h not= id in B_n admits a cabling c = c_1,...,c_n so that rho_N (c(h)) not= id, N=c_1 + ... + c_n.Comment: Published by Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol6/paper18.abs.html Version 4: Sentence added to proof of lemma 4.1, page 536, lines 7-

The frequency of wing damage in a migrating butterfly

The ability to fly is crucial for migratory insects. Consequently, the accumulation of damage on the wings over time can affect survival, especially for species that travel long distances. We examined the frequency of irreversible wing damage in the migratory butterfly Vanessa cardui to explore the effect of wing structure on wing damage frequency, as well as the mechanisms that might mitigate wing damage. An exceptionally high migration rate driven by high precipitation levels in their larval habitats in the winter of 2018–2019 provided us with an excellent opportunity to collect data on the frequency of naturally occurring wing damage associated with long-distance flights. Digital images of 135 individuals of V. cardui were collected and analyzed in Germany. The results show that the hindwings experienced a greater frequency of damage than the forewings. Moreover, forewings experienced more severe damage on the lateral margin, whereas hindwings experienced more damage on the trailing margin. The frequency of wing margin damage was higher in the painted lady butterfly than in the migrating monarch butterfly and in the butterfly Pontia occidentalis following artificially induced wing collisions. The results of this study could be used in future comparative studies of patterns of wing damage in butterflies and other insects. Additional studies are needed to clarify whether the strategies for coping with wing damage differ between migratory and non-migratory species

Critical Success factors for Six Sigma Implementation in Gaziantep Carpet companies

Aim of this study was to determine the critical factors that will support the success of the six sigma implementation and to investigate the different obstacles that make difficult to implement Six Sigma (SS) in the Gaziantep Carpet companies. Survey data collected from 108 companies that chosen randomly around Gaziantep and analyzed by SPSS. The research concluded that the highest requirements of SS available were Top management support and commitment that according to previous literature of the most important requirements or factors. According to the results of research, the teamwork and employee training & education on Six Sigma (SS) are the most critical factors for SS success. Also, there are important factors about implementing SS such as effectiveness of communication on SS Program, support and involvement of Top management, changing the culture effectively for SS and Project Management Skills. Research results have shown that; Lack of project management, lack of resources and lack of involvement in management are the most common problems in the SS implementation. A large amount of companies does not show resistance to the implementation of SS. Key Words: Six Sigma, Critical Success Factors, continuous improvemen

Stoma Prolapse

The incidence of prolapse which is a late complication of stoma ranges between 0–25%. In this study the records of the patients who had been treated and followed up with the diagnosis of stoma prolapse between 1995 -2005 in the General Surgery Department of Dicle University Hospital were examined, retrospectively. There were 12 patients (5 men, 7 women) with a mean age of 51,6±15.01 years. The causes of stoma construction were malign diseases in 9 patients and benign diseases in 3 of them. The average time between construction of stoma and formation of prolapse was 10,9±6.84 month. The type of stoma was loop in 7 patient, end stoma in 4 patient and double bowel enterostomy in 1 patient. Of nine patients with stoma prolapse had been subjected chemotherapy. The overall rate of stomal prolapsus was 3,1% in this series. It was 10,8% in patients who had received chemoradiotherapy. Since stomal prolasus is a serious complication and its reconstruction needs general anesthesia great care should be shown when creatig a stoma

Determination of compressive strength of perlite-containing slag-based geopolymers and its prediction using artificial neural network and regression-based methods

This study has two main objectives: (i) to investigate the parameters affecting the compressive strength (CS) of perlite-containing slag-based geopolymers and (ii) to predict the CS values obtained from experimental studies. In this regard, 540 cubic geopolymer samples incorporating different raw perlite powder (RPP) replacement ratios, different sodium hydroxide (NaOH) molarity, different curing time, and different curing temperatures for a total of 180 mixture groups were produced and their CS results were experimentally determined. Then conventional regression analysis (CRA), multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), and TreeNet methods, as well as artificial neural network (ANN) methods, were used to predict the CS results of geopolymers using this experimentally obtained data set. Root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), scatter index (SI) and Nash-Sutcliffe (NS) performance statistics were used to evaluate the CS prediction capabilities of the methods. As a result, it was determined that the optimum molarity, curing time, and curing temperature were 14 M, 24 h, and 110 celcius, respectively and 48 h of heat curing did not have a significant effect on increasing the CS of the geopolymers. The highest performances in regression-based models were obtained from the MARS method. However, the ANN method showed higher prediction performance than the regression-based methods. Considering the RMSE values, it was seen that the ANN method made improvements by 24.7, 2.1, and 13.7 %, respectively, compared to the MARS method for training, validation, and test sets

Member-Level Redundancy of Built-Up Steel Girders Subjected to Flexure

The purpose of this research was to describe the behavior of mechanically fastened built-up girders in a partially failed condition. This was achieved by testing large-scale riveted and high-strength bolted built-up specimens to determine their fracture resilience at low temperatures and their fatigue capacity after a single component was failed. Additionally, a finite element parametric study was performed to understand the behavior of built-up girders and to better describe the load distribution that occurs locally in the region adjacent to a failed component

Resveratrol-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles versus nanostructured lipid carriers: evaluation of antioxidant potential for dermal applications

Evren H Gokce1, Emrah Korkmaz1, Eleonora Dellera2, Giuseppina Sandri2, M Cristina Bonferoni2, Ozgen Ozer11Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ege, Izmir, Turkey; 2Department of Drug Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, ItalyBackground: Excessive generation of radical oxygen species (ROS) is a contributor to skin pathologies. Resveratrol (RSV) is a potent antioxidant. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) can ensure close contact and increase the amount of drug absorbed into the skin. In this study, RSV was loaded into SLN and NLC for dermal applications.Methods: Nanoparticles were prepared by high shear homogenization using Compritol 888ATO, Myglyol, Poloxamer188, and Tween80. Particle size (PS), polydispersity index (PI), zeta potential (ZP), drug entrapment efficiency (EE), and production yield were determined. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis and morphological transmission electron microscopy (TEM) examination were conducted. RSV concentration was optimized with cytotoxicity studies, and net intracellular accumulation of ROS was monitored with cytofluorimetry. The amount of RSV was determined from different layers of rat abdominal skin.Results: PS of uniform RSV-SLN and RSV-NLC were determined as 287.2 nm ± 5.1 and 110.5 nm ± 1.3, respectively. ZP was –15.3 mV ± 0.4 and –13.8 mV ± 0.1 in the same order. The drug EE was 18% higher in NLC systems. TEM studies showed that the drug in the shell model was relevant for SLN, and that the melting point of the lipid in NLC was slightly lower. Concentrations below 50 µM were determined as suitable RSV concentrations for both SLN and NLC in cell culture studies. RSV-NLC showed less fluorescence, indicating less ROS production in cytofluorometric studies. Ex vivo skin studies revealed that NLC are more efficient in carrying RSV to the epidermis.Conclusion: This study suggests that both of the lipid nanoparticles had antioxidant properties at a concentration of 50 µM. When the two systems were compared, NLC penetrated deeper into the skin. RSV-loaded NLC with smaller PS and higher drug loading appears to be superior to SLN for dermal applications.Keywords: solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, resveratro