Impact of biaxial square woven jute fabric reinforcement on mechanical performance of polyester-based composites

In this study, 4, 6 and 8 plied biaxial square woven jute fabric reinforced polyester composites have been fabricated by the compression molding technique. The physical properties (void fraction, fibre/volume and fibre/weight ratios) and mechanical properties (tensile, flexural and impact strength) of the composites are investigated. According to the physical evaluation test results, the highest void content is calculated for 8 plied composites (11%), where the fibre volume ratio (41.7%) and weight ratio (46.4%) are also maximum. The mechanical test results show that with the increase in jute fabric plies from four to eight, tensile strength, flexural stress and impact resistance improve by 25%, 100% and 340% respectively

Online training platform for library professionals: ANKOS Academy

In Turkey, librarianship education is given at academic institutions offering 4 year undergraduate programs. There are no regular professional training program leading to certification for people working in library and information services. Therefore, workers employed in information services in Turkey are complaining about the lack of such professional training programs. Graduate programs leading to advanced academic degrees such as MA and PhD, are not suited for the needs of professionals in their daily activities as those degrees are used for entering the academic life or for supporting the academic background of professionals towards managerial positions. ANKOS Academy group has started its activities in 2015 in order to offer continuous training programs for information services professionals. The programs aim to enable the professionals to advance their abilities for a better positioning in today’s pierce competition environment at national and international level. ANKOS Academy has the following objectives for professionals: - enhancing application oriented skills, - focusing on professional specialization, transforming competencies into action. ANKOS Academy has developed several training programs to suit the needs of today’s changing librarianship environment. Those trainings are decided to be offered online via virtual classrooms. After examination of available platforms, GoToMeeting has been selected as the medium of delivery due to its advantages in terms of performance. “Selection and Management of Electronic Resources” and “Open Access and DSpace” are the two trainings developed by the ANKOS Academy group with support of the instructors of the courses. Those trainings are offered between 17 November 2015 and 8 December 2015 for the first time. For a selected group of participants, two parallel sessions are conducted by four instructors. The training is offered to 21 library professionals from 21 different academic libraries free of charge. This initial offering aimed to be an experiment in order to observe weak points for possible improvements. A survey has been applied to the participants after the training to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programs. In this paper, the phases of planning, development, and delivery of ANKOS Academy trainings will be examined in detail. Achievements of the trainings will be evaluated including the survey data. The results indicate that participants have benefited extensively from the trainings where the details will be explained in the paper. Based on the success of the initial trainings, ANKOS Academy has conducted a survey to determine the potential participants of future trainings. Future plans of ANKOS Academy will also be included in the paper

Evaluation of the Electronic Resource Usage of Ankara University Faculty Members

Günümüzde üniversiteler, eğitim-öğretim, araştırma ve uygulama faaliyetleri içerisinde bulunabilmek için bilimsel bilgiye en doğru ve en hızlı biçimde ulaşmayı hedeflemektedir. Bundan dolayı, Ankara Üniversitesi akademik personelinin bilimsel bilgiye erişim için çağdaş bilgi ve iletişim teknolojilerini kullanması kaçınılmazdır. Bilimsel her veri tabanının standart taşıması gereken belirli özellikleri bulunmaktadır. Bu özellikler veri tabanında yer alan verilere erişimin doğru ve hızlı olması bakımından önem kazanmaktadır. Ankara Üniversitesi mensuplarına gereksinim duyacakları bilimsel bilgi kaynakları elektronik ortamda en çağdaş bilgi ve iletişim teknolojilerini kullanarak sunulmaktadır. Bu araştırmada, Ankara Üniversitesi akademik personelinin bilgi gereksinimleri doğrultusunda oluşturulan ve elektronik kütüphanede yer alan veri tabanlarının kullanılıp kullanılmadığının belirlenmesi amaçlanmış; bu amaca yönelik bilgi modeli ve içeriği belirlenerek uygulamaların gerçekleştirilmesi hedeflenmiştir.Education, research, and implementation activities of universities necessitate access to information in the most accurate and fastest manner in today's conditions. In this regard; Members of Ankara University have to access scientific information through the most contemporary information and communication technology in the electronic environment, primarily through the global internet system. Each scientific database has specific standard characteristics. These properties gain importance in terms of the correctness and speed of access to the data contained in the database. The sources of scientific information that the members of Ankara University will need are presented in the electronic environment using the most contemporary information and communication technologies. This article aims to determine the information needs of the members of Ankara University and to determine the information access and the use of information by identifying the information access model for researching the educational facilities and the necessary infrastructure and technical support so that the maximum benefit can be obtained from the electronic library. Aims at realizing their application by determining the information model and content for this purpose

Impact of varicocele repair on semen parameters in infertile men: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: Despite the significant role of varicocele in the pathogenesis of male infertility, the impact of varicocele repair (VR) on conventional semen parameters remains controversial. Only a few systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRMAs) have evaluated the impact of VR on sperm concentration, total motility, and progressive motility, mostly using a before-after analytic approach. No SRMA to date has evaluated the change in conventional semen parameters after VR compared to untreated controls. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of VR on conventional semen parameters in infertile patients with clinical varicocele compared to untreated controls. Materials and Methods: A literature search was performed using Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases following the Population Intervention Comparison Outcome (PICOS) model (Population: infertile patients with clinical varicocele; Intervention: VR [any technique]; Comparison: infertile patients with clinical varicocele that were untreated; Outcome: sperm concentration, sperm total count, progressive sperm motility, total sperm motility, sperm morphology, and semen volume; Study type: randomized controlled trials and observational studies). Results: A total of 1,632 abstracts were initially assessed for eligibility. Sixteen studies were finally included with a total of 2,420 infertile men with clinical varicocele (1,424 patients treated with VR vs. 996 untreated controls). The analysis showed significantly improved post-operative semen parameters in patients compared to controls with regards to sperm concentration (standardized mean difference [SMD] 1.739; 95% CI 1.129 to 2.349; p<0.001; I2=97.6%), total sperm count (SMD 1.894; 95% CI 0.566 to 3.222; p<0.05; I2=97.8%), progressive sperm motility (SMD 3.301; 95% CI 2.164 to 4.437; p<0.01; I2=98.5%), total sperm motility (SMD 0.887; 95% CI 0.036 to 1.738; p=0.04; I2=97.3%) and normal sperm morphology (SMD 1.673; 95% CI 0.876 to 2.470; p<0.05; I2=98.5%). All the outcomes showed a high inter-study heterogeneity, but the sensitivity analysis showed that no study was sensitive enough to change these results. Publication bias was present only in the analysis of the sperm concentration and progressive motility. No significant difference was found for the semen volume (SMD 0.313; 95% CI -0.242 to 0.868; I2=89.7%). Conclusions: This study provides a high level of evidence in favor of a positive effect of VR to improve conventional semen parameters in infertile men with clinical varicocele. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first SRMA to compare changes in conventional semen parameters after VR with changes in parameters of a control group over the same period. This is in contrast to other SRMAs which have compared semen parameters before and after VR, without reference to a control group. Our findings strengthen the available evidence and have a potential to upgrade professional societies’ practice recommendations favoring VR to improve conventional semen parameters in infertile men

Impact of Varicocele Repair on Semen Parameters in Infertile Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose:Despite the significant role of varicocele in the pathogenesis of male infertility, the impact of varicocele repair (VR) on conventional semen parameters remains controversial. Only a few systematic reviews and meta-analyses (SRMAs) have evaluated the impact of VR on sperm concentration, total motility, and progressive motility, mostly using a before-after analytic approach. No SRMA to date has evaluated the change in conventional semen parameters after VR compared to untreated controls. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of VR on conventional semen parameters in infertile patients with clinical varicocele compared to untreated controls.Materials and Methods:A literature search was performed using Scopus, PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases following the Population Intervention Comparison Outcome (PICOS) model (Population: infertile patients with clinical varicocele; Intervention: VR [any technique]; Comparison: infertile patients with clinical varicocele that were untreated; Outcome: sperm concentration, sperm total count, progressive sperm motility, total sperm motility, sperm morphology, and semen volume; Study type: randomized controlled trials and observational studies).Results:A total of 1,632 abstracts were initially assessed for eligibility. Sixteen studies were finally included with a total of 2,420 infertile men with clinical varicocele (1,424 patients treated with VR vs. 996 untreated controls). The analysis showed significantly improved post-operative semen parameters in patients compared to controls with regards to sperm concentration (standardized mean difference [SMD] 1.739; 95% CI 1.129 to 2.349; pConclusions:This study provides a high level of evidence in favor of a positive effect of VR to improve conventional semen parameters in infertile men with clinical varicocele. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first SRMA to compare changes in conventional semen parameters after VR with changes in parameters of a control group over the same period. This is in contrast to other SRMAs which have compared semen parameters before and after VR, without reference to a control group. Our findings strengthen the available evidence and have a potential to upgrade professional societies' practice recommendations favoring VR to improve conventional semen parameters in infertile men.</p

Devolopment of the digital services in public libraries: Examples of public libraries in Ankara

Public libraries are one of the important information centers that play a significant role in the economic, social and cultural development. They support the individual's, who form the society, life long education; also help about self development and spending spare times. In addition these public libraries meet the needs of information. Public libraries are have to convey all the sources and services to the every zones of the community. However; in case the libraries service its sources at a solid place just a few part of the community can get benefits from the library. And providing service in this way can not be acceptable in our daily life conditions. Using of the digital vias is one of the suitable ways offering service to the all society. Public libraries should also convey their all data by the agency of digital vias. One of the duties of the libraries is advocating the local cultural heritage and protecting the manuscripts and rare works. These monuments should be protected by digitizing and they should be served to the all community access. Therefore, public libraries must develop their digital information services and present to the users. In addition to these they should support all the digitizing workshops. In our survey it is determined that the views of the staff and the active users about digitization and digital information services. Accordingly; a research planned at nine public libraries in Ankara between the staff and the users. The staff and the user's views are obtained via statistical study and interview technique. Generally according to the results, both the workers and the active users of the libraries have a positive look on the digitization. Despite that the public libraries come up short on digization works. And also they can not supply all the access to the resources. In the other hand, the libraries which serve digital informarion resources, can not inform their users in an efficient way. As a result of these, in our developing world the public libraries must keep up with the time and the staff of the libraries must be educated about digital information services. Also they should pay more attention to the digitization works

Impact of biaxial square woven jute fabric reinforcement on mechanical performance of polyester-based composites

252-256In this study, 4, 6 and 8 plied biaxial square woven jute fabric reinforced polyester composites have been fabricated by the compression molding technique. The physical properties (void fraction, fibre/volume and fibre/weight ratios) and mechanical properties (tensile, flexural and impact strength) of the composites are investigated. According to the physical evaluation test results, the highest void content is calculated for 8 plied composites (11%), where the fibre volume ratio (41.7%) and weight ratio (46.4%) are also maximum. The mechanical test results show that with the increase in jute fabric plies from four to eight, tensile strength, flexural stress and impact resistance improve by 25%, 100% and 340% respectively

Examination of the Thermo-mechanical Properties of E-Glass/Carbon Composites

Eight-ply E-glass, carbon and E-glass/carbon fabric-reinforced polyester based hybrid composites were manufactured in this study. A vacuum infusion system was used as the production method. Dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry analysis were conducted to examine the thermo-mechanical properties of composite samples. The effect of reinforcement type and different stacking sequences of fabric plies on the thermo-mechanical properties of composite samples were also investigated. Results showed that the type and alignment of reinforcement material has a signifi cant effect on the dynamic mechanical properties of composite samples

Examination of the thermo-mechanical properties of E-glass/carbon composites

Eight-ply E-glass, carbon and E-glass/carbon fabric-reinforced polyester based hybrid composites were manufactured in this study. A vacuum infusion system was used as the production method. Dynamic mechanical analysis, thermogravimetric analysis and diff erential scanning calorimetry analysis were conducted to examine the thermo-mechanical properties of composite samples. The eff ect of reinforcement type and different stacking sequences of fabric plies on the thermo-mechanical properties of composite samples were also investigated. Results showed that the type and alignment of reinforcement material has a signifi cant eff ect on the dynamic mechanical properties of composite samples