Optimization of Reservoir Operation Using Cuckoo Search Algorithm: Example of Adiguzel Dam, Denizli, Turkey

The Adiguzel Dam is located in Denizli in the western part of Turkey. It was built for irrigation purposes, but it also produces energy at the same time. The dam's energy-production regime is not regular since there are no reservoir-operating rules. Thus, this study develops a reservoir optimization rule to generate a corresponding gain in energy production. It is well known that operating a reservoir is a complex problem that depends on many parameters such as inflow, storage capacity, water elevation, tailwater elevation, and evaporation. Therefore, in order to optimize energy production, there is a need to use heuristic algorithms such as the Cuckoo Search (CS). This study develops a CS algorithm-based solution to optimize the reservoir's operational system and generate an optimal operation rule curve. Results show that the CS algorithm improves the system operation, and the energy production will be increased by about 10% to a value of 160000 MWh with a corresponding economic gain of about $12 x 10(6) in total for 183 months

River Flow Estimation from Upstream Flow Records Using Support Vector Machines

A novel architecture for flood routing model has been proposed and its efficiency is validated on several problems by employing support vector machines. The architecture is designed by including the inputs and observed and calculated outflows from the previous time step output. Whole observed data have been used for determining the model parameters in the heuristic methods given in the literature, which constitutes the major disadvantage of the existing approaches. Moreover, using the whole data for training may lead to overtraining problem that causes overfitting of estimations and data. Therefore, in this study, 60-90% of the data are randomly selected for training and then the remaining data are used for validation. In order to take the effects of the measurement errors into consideration, the data are corrupted by some additive noise. The results show that the proposed architecture improves the model performance under noisy and missing data conditions and that support vector machines can be powerful alternative in flood routing modeling

Playing Digital Game Motivations of University Students

Digital gaming involves all kinds of activities, both individually and as a team, in an online or offline environment through an electronic device. It is stated that the age of playing digital games has decreased to 5-6 years. The aim of this study is to investigate the motivation of students in different faculties of Kastamonu University to play digital games according to gender, age, faculty, class, income and frequency of playing. The research is a descriptive research conducted with quantitative research method. A total of 400 students participated from Kastamonu University in Turkey. In the research, digital game playing motivation scale developed by Munusturlar and Munusturlar (2018) was used as a measurement tool. In the study, the normal distribution of the data was determined by kurtosis and skewness values, and parametric analysis methods One-Way Anova and Independent T test were used. The motivation of the participants to play digital games was determined at medium and high levels. According to the results, differences were found according to the variables of gender, department, age, class and income status. According to a study of men playing digital games motivation levels are higher than women. In addition, participants with better financial status are more motivated to play digital games. In addition, older participants have higher motivation to play digital games

Demographics of patients with heart failure who were over 80 years old and were admitted to the cardiology clinics in Turkey

Objective: Heart failure (HF) has a high prevalence and mortality rate in elderly patients; however, there are few studies that have focused on patients older than 80 years. The aim of this study is to describe and compare the age-specific demographics and clinical features of Turkish elderly patients with HF who were admitted to cardiology clinics. Methods: The Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease in Elderly Turkish population (ELDER-TURK) study was conducted in 73 centers in Turkey, and it recruited a total of 5694 patients aged 65 years or older. In this study, the clinical profile of the patients who were aged 80 years or older and those between 65 and 79 years with HF were described and compared based on the ejection fraction (EF)-related classification: HFrEF and HFpEF (is considered as EF: >= 50%). Results: A total of 1098 patients (male, 47.5%; mean age, 83.5 +/- 3.1 years) aged 80 years and 4596 patients (male, 50.2 %; mean age, 71.1 +/- 4.31 years) aged 65-79 years were enrolled in this study. The prevalence of HF was 39.8% for patients who were >= 80 years and 27.1% for patients 65-79 years old. For patients aged >= 80 years with HF, the prevalence rate was 67% for hypertension (HT), 25.6% for diabetes mellitus (DM), 54.3% for coronary artery disease (CAD), and 42.3% for atrial fibrilation. Female proportion was lower in the HFrEF group (p=0.019). The prevalence of HT and DM was higher in the HFpEF group (p= 80 years with HFrEF (p<0.01). Conclusion: HF is common in elderly Turkish population, and its frequency increases significantly with age. Females, diabetics, and hypertensives are more likely to have HFpEF, whereas CAD patients are more likely to have HFrEF.Turkish Society of CardiologyThis study was supported by Turkish Society of Cardiology

Elit Türk kadın hentbolcularda 30 – 15 intermittent fitness test ile anaerobik performans ilişkisinin değerlendirilmesi

Bu araştırmanın amacı elit Türk kadın hentbolcuların dayanıklılık performanslarının belirlenmesinde kullanılan saha temelli 30-15 aralıklı test (IFT) performansı ile anaerobik performans; 30 saniye Wingate Anaerobik güç ve kapasite, çeviklik T-Testi performans sonuçları ilişkilerini araştırmaktır. Çalışmaya Türkiye Süper liginde oynayan 30 kadın hentbolcu gönüllü olarak katılmış 4 tanesi çalışmayı tamamlayamamıştır. Araştırma hipotezini test etmek için kesitsel tanımlayıcı korelasyon tasarımı kullanılmıştır. Ölçümler üç ayrı günde 30-15 IFT, Çeviklik T-Test ve Wingate 30 sn Anaerobik güç ve kapasite testleri 72 saat ara ile uygulanmıştır. Araştırma hipotezini test etmek için ilk olarak 30-15 IFT performans sonuçları ile anaerobik performans ve çeviklik ilişki katsayıları hesaplanmış ve ilişki tespit edilen değişkenlerin 30-15 IFT performansını ne kadar tahmin ettiğini belirlemek için de Çoklu Doğrusal Regrasyon analiz yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Katılımcıların 30-15 dayanıklılık testi ile VO2maks kapasitelerine ulaşılmış ve oyuncuların VO2maks seviyeleri ile anaerobik güç ve kapasite arasındaki ilişkiye bakılmış bunun sonucunda yapılan regresyon analizinde, bu iki parametre arasında anlamlı bir ilişkiye rastlanılmamıştır (R2= 0,110 p>0,05). Çalışmada VO2maks ile çeviklik performansı arasındaki ilişki de incelenmiştir. Regresyon analizi bu iki parametre arasında anlamlı bir ilişki olmadığını ortaya çıkarmıştır (R2= 0,134 p>0,05). Özetle, elit kadın hentbolcularda, 30-15 IFT testinin anaerobik performans ile bir ilişkisinin olmadığı belirlenmiştir

Secondary prevention of coronary heart disease in elderly population of Turkey: A subgroup analysis of ELDERTURK study

Background: Secondary prevention plays an important role after acute coronary event due to high risk of adverse events in elderly. In present study we aimed to evaluate the lifestyle, management of risk factors and medical treatment for secondary protection in elderly patients with known coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: ELDERTURK is a non-interventional, multi-centered, observational study, which included total of 5694 elderly patients ( &gt; 65 years) from 50 centers in Turkey. In this study elderly patients from the ELDERTURK population with known CHD were evaluated for cardiovascular risk factors, comor- bidities and medication usage. Results: A total of 2976 (52.3% of study) out of 5694 patients included in the ELDERTURK study were evaluated. All had known CHD with a mean age of 73.4 ± 6.2 years and 60.3% were male. 13.0% of patients were smokers, 42.4% were overweight and 21.1% were obese. Only 23.6% of patients reported to do regular exercise, 73.4% had history of hypertension, 47.4% had dyslipidemia and 33.9% had diabetes mellitus. The rate of patients with systolic blood pressure &gt; 140 mmHg were 31.1% and only 13.9% of patients had a recommended ≤ 70 mg/dL level of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Anti- platelet, statin, beta-blocker and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker usage was limited to 27.3%. Conclusions: The ELDERTURK study shows that many patients with CHD have a high prevalence of modifiable risk factors and unhealthy lifestyle. Apart from this, many patients are not receiving thera- peutic intervention and as a consequence most were not achieving the recommended goals.   

Early Forest Fire Detection Using Radio-Acoustic Sounding System

Automated early fire detection systems have recently received a significant amount of attention due to their importance in protecting the global environment. Some emergent technologies such as ground-based, satellite-based remote sensing and distributed sensor networks systems have been used to detect forest fires in the early stages. In this study, a radio-acoustic sounding system with fine space and time resolution capabilities for continuous monitoring and early detection of forest fires is proposed. Simulations show that remote thermal mapping of a particular forest region by the proposed system could be a potential solution to the problem of early detection of forest fires

Growth, tolerance and safety outcomes with use of an extensively hydrolyzed casein-based formula in infants with cow’s milk protein allergy

ObjectiveTo evaluate growth, tolerance and safety outcomes with use of an extensively hydrolyzed casein-based formula (eHCF) in infants with cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA).MethodsA total of 226 infants (mean ± SD age: 106.5 ± 39.5 days, 52.7% were girls) with CMPA who received eHCF comprising at least half of the daily dietary intake were included. Data on anthropometrics [weight for age (WFA), length for age (LFA) and weight for length (WFL) z-scores] were recorded at baseline (visit 1), while data on infant feeding and stool records, anthropometrics and Infant Feeding and Stool Patterns and Formula Satisfaction Questionnaires were recorded at visit 2 (on Days 15 ± 5) and visit 3 (on Days 30 ± 5).ResultsFrom baseline to visit 2 and visit 3, WFA z-scores (from −0.60 ± 1.13 to −0.54 ± 1.09 at visit 2, and to −0.44 ± 1.05 at visit 3, p &lt; 0.001) and WFL z-scores (from −0.80 ± 1.30 to −0.71 ± 1.22 at visit 2, and to −0.64 ± 1.13 at visit 3, p = 0.002) were significantly increased. At least half of infants never experienced irritability or feeding refusal (55.7%) and spit-up after feeding (50.2%). The majority of mothers were satisfied with the study formula (93.2%), and wished to continue using it (92.2%).ConclusionsIn conclusion, eHCF was well-accepted and tolerated by an intended use population of infants  ≤ 6 months of age with CMPA and enabled adequate volume consumption and improved growth indices within 30 days of utilization alongside a favorable gastrointestinal tolerance and a high level of parental satisfaction

Modules whose exact submodules are essentially embedded in summands

In this article we study the condition that every exact submodule is essentially embedded in direct summands in a module. It is shown that the class of modules with former property is closed under direct sums. However, we provide examples which show that this new class of modules is not closed under direct summands. Failure of the latter closure property allows us to establish results on the inheritance of our condition by direct summands