Determination of volatile compounds of the first rose oil and the first rose water by HS-SPME/GC/MS techniques

Background: Rose water and rose oil are used in the perfume, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industries. The determination of volatile compounds in rose oil and rose water obtained from oil-bearing rose is highly important in terms of availability in the industry and in human health.Materials and Methods: Twenty four and twenty six volatile compounds were determined in the first rose oil and in the first rose water. Thus, in this study, volatile compounds in the first rose oil and first rose water have been determined by HS-SPME/GC/MS (Headspace-Solid Phase Micro Extraction/Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry) techniques which were not published previously for determining volatile compounds in rose oil and rose water.Results: Twenty four and twenty six volatile compounds were found in the first rose oil and in the first rose water, respectively. It was further discovered that both first rose oil and first rose water are rich in oxygenated monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, with a third group of volatile compounds known as aliphatic hydrocarbons being found only in first rose oil. Citronellol contents of the first rose oil and rose water were found to be 43.40% and 40.13% respectively, whereas geraniol contents were 11.81% and 15.97%, respectively.Conclusion: These findings suggest that HS-SPME/GC/MS is a suitable technique for the determination of volatile compounds of rose oil and rose water.Keywords: Oil-bearing rose, Rosa damascena, HS-SPME/GC/MS, volatile compounds

Infection by agnoprotein-negative mutants of polyomavirus JC and SV40 results in the release of virions that are mostly deficient in DNA content

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human polyomavirus JC (JCV) is the etiologic agent of a brain disease, known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). The JCV genome encodes a small multifunctional phospho-protein, agnoprotein, from the late coding region of the virus, whose regulatory functions in viral replication cycle remain elusive. In this work, the functional role of JCV and SV40 agnoproteins in virion release was investigated using a point mutant (Pt) of each virus, where the ATG codon of agnoprotein was mutated to abrogate its expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Analysis of both viral protein expression and replication using Pt mutant of each virus revealed that both processes were substantially down-regulated in the absence of agnoprotein compared to wild-type (WT) virus. Complementation studies in cells, which are constitutively expressing JCV agnoprotein and transfected with the JCV Pt mutant genome, showed an elevation in the level of viral DNA replication near to that observed for WT. Constitutive expression of large T antigen was found to be not sufficient to compensate the loss of agnoprotein for efficient replication of neither JCV nor SV40 in vivo. Examination of the viral release process for both JCV and SV40 Pt mutants showed that viral particles are efficiently released from the infected cells in the absence of agnoprotein but were found to be mostly deficient in viral DNA content.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results of this study provide evidence that agnoprotein plays an important role in the polyomavirus JC and SV40 life cycle. Infection by agnoprotein-negative mutants of both viruses results in the release of virions that are mostly deficient in DNA content.</p

Optimum design of reinforced concrete retaining walls with the flower pollination algorithm

The flower pollination algorithm (FPA) is anefficient metaheuristicoptimizationalgorithm mimickingthe pollinationprocessof flowering species. In this study, FPA is applied, for first time, to the optimum design of reinforced concrete (RC) cantilever retaining walls. It is foundthat FPA offers important savings with respect to conventional design approachesand that it outperformsgenetic algorithm (GA)andthe particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in this designproblem.Furthermore, parameter tuning reveals that the best FPA performance is achieved for switch probability values ranging between 0.4 and 0.7, a population size of 20 individualsand aLévy flightstep sizescale factor of 0.5. Finally, parametric optimum designs show that theoptimumcost of RC retaining walls increases rapidly with the wallheight and smoothly with the magnitude of surcharge loadin

Distribution of Spoligotyping Defined Genotypic Lineages among Drug-Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Clinical Isolates in Ankara, Turkey

Background: Investigation of genetic heterogeneity and spoligotype-defined lineages of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates collected during a three-year period in two university hospitals and National Tuberculosis Reference and Research Laboratory in Ankara, Turkey. Methods and Findings: A total of 95 drug-resistant M. tuberculosis isolates collected from three different centers were included in this study. Susceptibility testing of the isolates to four major antituberculous drugs was performed using proportion method on Löwenstein–Jensen medium and BACTEC 460-TB system. All clinical isolates were typed by using spoligotyping and IS6110-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) methods. Seventy-three of the 95 (76.8%) drug resistant M. tuberculosis isolates were isoniazid-resistant, 45 (47.4%) were rifampicin-resistant, 32 (33.7%) were streptomycinresistant and 31 (32.6%) were ethambutol-resistant. The proportion of multidrug-resistant isolates (MDR) was 42.1%. By using spoligotyping, 35 distinct patterns were observed; 75 clinical isolates were grouped in 15 clusters (clustering rate of 79%) and 20 isolates displayed unique patterns. Five of these 20 unique patterns corresponded to orphan patterns in th

Vancomycin tolerance in enterococci

Background: Tolerance can be defined as the ability of bacteria to grow in the presence of high concentrations of bactericide antimicrobics, so that the killing action of the drug is avoided but the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) remains the same. We investigated vancomycin tolerance in the Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus faecalis strains isolated from different clinical specimens. Methods: Vancomycin was obtained from Sigma Chemical Co. We studied 100 enterococci strains. Fifty-six and 44 of Enterococcus strains were idendified as E. feacalis and E. faecium, respectively. To determine MICs and minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC), we inoculated strains from an overnight agar culture to Muller-Hinton broth and incubated them for 4-6 h at 37degreesC with shaking to obtain a logarithmic phase culture. The inoculum was controlled by performing a colony count for each test. We determined MBC values and MBC/MIC ratios to study tolerance to vancomycin. Vancomycin tolerance was defined as a high MBC value and an MBC/MIC ratio greater than or equal to32. Results: Fifty-six and 44 of the Enterococcus strains were identified as E. faecium and E. faecalis, respectively. Thirty-one E. faecium and 48 E. faecalis were found to be susceptible to vancomycin and these susceptible strains were included in this study. The MICs of susceptible strains ranged from less than or equal to1 to 4 mg/l, the MBCs were greater than or equal to512 mg/l. Tolerance was detected in all E. faecalis and E. faecium strains. The standard E. faecalis 21913 strain also exhibited tolerance according to the high MBC value and the MBC/MIC ratio. We defined the tolerant strains as having no bactericidal effect and MBC/MIC greater than or equal to32. We found that a 100% tolerance was present in susceptible strains. Conclusions: One of the hypotheses for tolerance is that tolerant cells fail to mobilize or create the autolysins needed for enlargement and division. Our data suggests that tolerance may compromise glycopeptide therapy of serious enterococci infections. To add an aminoglycoside to the glycopeptide therapy unless MBCs are unavailable can be useful in the effective treatment of serious Enterococcus infections. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Approach in Visual Art Education

In recent years, in visual arts education, there has been a tendency towards teaching methods that expand learning beyond the school's walls, based on real world experiences, and that enable the students to develop meaningful relationships with cultural, political, and social issues. Among these trends, the practices in which the problems are found and solved by the students themselves rather than trying to find the right answers to the questions posed by the teacher in the classroom, where the circumstances that are usually neglected in socio-cultural life have been revealed. This research focuses on improving the prospective visual arts teachers' urban awareness and identity via a teaching activity designed through Project based learning methods. The research has been designed as an action research. Participants of the research were 40 students enrolled in Anadolu University, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Teaching, and took "Special Teaching Methods II" course. The research data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with the students, reflective daily reports, and the artworks the students created at the end of this process, and their reports written on these works during the 5 (five)-week implementation process. Content analysis method was used to analyze the data obtained from the research implementation process. In this research, the prospective teachers were encouraged to have a human-environment- and city-oriented mindset at each stage of this learning process, which began with analysis of urban perceptions and extended towards the artistic fiction in that space. The prospective teachers stated that the project-based learning approach has made a great contribution to their awareness for experiencing the real world and preserving what belongs to urban memory. The prospective teachers not only focused on the aspects that address to morphological aesthetics of their artworks, they also focused on their connection with the society and space, and even with the past

teachers after TUBITAK-4005 Project

The objective of this research is to evaluate the process and school applicability of teacher training program designed and applied on Visual Culture Theory in visual arts courses in line with opinions of project participant teachers. In this research, we used the "holistic multi-stage" sampling since we examined visual culture studies in visual arts courses in line with the opinions of classroom teachers and visual arts teachers. The study group in this research consisted of a total of 508 teachers who participated in the teacher training workshop organized under TUBITAK 4005 Science and Society Innovative Education Practices. We collected data using participant diaries and focus group interviews. The data were analyzed by content analysis and presented under five main themes formed by visual culture theory; "Learning Experiences", "Inquiries", "Concerns", "Needs" and "New Ideas for Learning and Teaching". Suggestions were presented on extending pre-service and in-service training programs to teach new approaches such as visual culture theory in art education and on increasing number of practices involving student-teacher and parent interaction taking such approaches in the scope of lifelong learning.C1 [Ozsoy, Vedat] TOBB Univ, Fac Architecture & Design, Ankara, Turkey.[Mamur, Nuray] Pamukkale Univ, Fac Educ, Denizli, Turkey.[Saribas, Sevcan] Anadolu Univ, Fac Educ, Eskisehir, Turkey