The Evaluation of the Changes in the Agricultural Sector with Common Economic Indicators in Turkey during the Last Decade

Agriculture is an important sector in the Turkish Economy in terms of population and employment, nutrition, agricultural production, domestic consumption, its contribution to industry, national income and balance of payments. By current economic indicators in Turkey, while its share in national income is 9.0%, its share in employment is 23.6%. Although the share of agriculture in GDP decreased in Turkey in the last decade, the rate of growth of agricultural sector increased. Whereas cultivated fields and the number of livestock declined, vegetative production and animal production increased significantly. Moreover, the rate of total employment increased, but the rate of agricultural employment decreased. In addition, the use of machine in agriculture increased and the wage of employees in agriculture increased considerably, as well. On the other hand, agricultural support policies in the last decade witnessed major reforms and important support policies were implemented in many areas. In 2013, the share of agricultural subsidies in gross domestic product increased compared to the previous year and an increase in the 2014 budget was targeted. In this study, agriculture-related indicators in Turkey in the last ten years will be evaluated and the last ten-year change and the reasons of this change will be examined. In the light of these changes, agricultural recommendations in terms of future oriented agricultural plans and programs will be presented. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2s1p58

Aero-Structural Assessment of an Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator

NASA is conducting an Entry, Descent and Landing Systems Analysis (EDL-SA) Study to determine the key technology development projects that should be undertaken for enabling the landing of large payloads on Mars for both human and robotic missions. Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerators (IADs) are one of the candidate technologies. A variety of EDL architectures are under consideration. The current effort is conducted for development and simulations of computational framework for inflatable structures

Network-selective vulnerability of the human cerebellum to Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia

Neurodegenerative diseases are associated with distinct and distributed patterns of atrophy in the cerebral cortex. Emerging evidence suggests that these atrophy patterns resemble intrinsic connectivity networks in the healthy brain, supporting the network-based degeneration framework where neuropathology spreads across connectivity networks. An intriguing yet untested possibility is that the cerebellar circuits, which share extensive connections with the cerebral cortex, could be selectively targeted by major neurodegenerative diseases. Here we examined the structural atrophy in the cerebellum across common types of neurodegenerative diseases, and characterized the functional connectivity patterns of these cerebellar atrophy regions. Our results showed that Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia are associated with distinct and circumscribed atrophy in the cerebellum. These cerebellar atrophied regions share robust and selective intrinsic connectivity with the atrophied regions in the cerebral cortex. These findings for the first time demonstrated the selective vulnerability of the cerebellum to common neurodegenerative disease, extending the network-based degeneration framework to the cerebellum. Our work also has direct implications on the cerebellar contribution to the cognitive and affective processes that are compromised in neurodegeneration as well as the practice of using the cerebellum as reference region for ligand neuroimaging studies

Monoclonal antibodies targeting surface exposed epitopes of Candida albicans cell wall proteins confer in vivo protection in an infection model

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We gratefully acknowledge Kevin McKenzie and Lucy Wight from the University of Aberdeen Microscopy and Histology Facility for training and access to fluorescence microscopy and for their support and assistance in this work. We also gratefully acknowledge David Stead from Aberdeen Proteomics for his support and assistance with the Candida proteome analysis and the staff of the University of Aberdeen Medical Research Facility for their support and assistance with the mouse studies. This work was supported by the following research grants: the High Throughput and Fragment Screening Fund, Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA); a seed corn award from the University of Aberdeen Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund; an M.Res. studentship by the Medical Research Council Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Aberdeen (grant number MR/P501955/1); a Ph.D. studentship from the Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen; a Ph.D. studentship from Taibah University and a Saudi Government scholarship; and a Ph.D. studentship by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement number H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014-642095 (OPATHY). C.A.M., S.P., and A.J.P. contributed to the concept and study design. C.A.M. and S.P. developed the methodology. S.A.A. and L.F. performed recombinant antibody generation and ELISAs. L.F. and M.M. completed IgG reformatting and the production of mAbs for animal studies. M.M., T.H.T., and L.A.W. performed ELISAs and immunofluorescence staining. M.M. performed macrophage assays, and D.M.M. planned, conducted, and analyzed animal studies. C.A.M., S.P., and A.J.P. contributed to funding acquisition and project administration, and C.A.M., S.P., and L.A.W. contributed to the supervision and training of M.Res. and Ph.D. students. S.P. wrote the original draft, and C.A.M., D.M.M., and A.J.P. completed review and editing. All authors had full access to the data and approved the manuscript before it was submitted by the corresponding author(s). S.P., A.J.P., and C.A.M. are inventors on a patent related to the development of antifungal antibodies to surface-exposed epitopes of fungal pathogens owned by the University of Aberdeen. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Acute kidney injury in lymphoma: a single centre experience

Background. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common but least studied complication of lymphoma. Objective. To determine the frequency and predictors of AKI in lymphoma and to study the impact of AKI on hospital stay and mortality. Methods. Retrospective review of medical records of hospitalized lymphoma patients aged ≥14 years between January 2008 and December 2011 was done. Results. Out of 365 patients, AKI was present in 31.8% (116/365). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that independent predictors for AKI included sepsis (odds ratio (OR) 3.76; 95% CI 1.83-7.72), aminoglycosides (OR 4.75; 95% CI 1.15-19.52), diuretics (OR 2.96; 95% CI 1.31-6.69), tumor lysis syndrome (OR 3.85; 95% CI 1.54-9.59), and R-CVP regimen (OR 4.70; 95% CI 1.20-18.36). AKI stages 2 and 3 was associated with increased hospital stay (OR 2.01; 95% CI 1.19-3.40). Conclusion. AKI was significantly associated with sepsis, aminoglycoside, diuretics, presence of tumor lysis syndrome, and use of R-CVP regimen. Presence of AKIN (Acute Kidney Injury Network) stages 2 and 3 AKI had increased hospital stay. AKI was also associated with increased mortality

Synthesis and Thermal Degradation Studies of Melamine Formaldehyde Resins

Melamine formaldehyde (MF) resins have been synthesized at different reaction temperature and pH values. Different molar ratios of melamine and formaldehyde were used to synthesize the corresponding resins. The prepared resin samples were characterized by using molecular weight determination viscometry and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The maximum percentage of solid content (69.7%) was obtained at pH 8.5 and 75°C temperature. The molecular weight of MF resin was increased with an increase of melamine monomer concentration. The highest residual weight 14.125 wt.% was obtained with sample 10

Boundary layer flow of nanofluid over an exponentially stretching surface

The steady boundary layer flow of nanofluid over an exponential stretching surface is investigated analytically. The transport equations include the effects of Brownian motion parameter and thermophoresis parameter. The highly nonlinear coupled partial differential equations are simplified with the help of suitable similarity transformations. The reduced equations are then solved analytically with the help of homotopy analysis method (HAM). The convergence of HAM solutions are obtained by plotting h-curve. The expressions for velocity, temperature and nanoparticle volume fraction are computed for some values of the parameters namely, suction injection parameter α, Lewis number Le, the Brownian motion parameter Nb and thermophoresis parameter Nt

Distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediment from Muar river and Pulau Merambong, Peninsular Malaysia

Previous studies indicated that with increasing industrialization and urbanization, pollution problems have become more significant in Malaysia. West coast of Malaysia is more populated and urbanized than the east and therefore more susceptible to various pollutants. Surface sediment samples were collected from Pulau Merambong and Muar river, Peninsular Malaysia during May 2013 where 16 USEPA Priority Pollutants PAHs were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Total PAHs in the sediments for Muar river ranged from 15.5 to 165.7 ng/g dw whereas the total PAHs for Pulau Merambong ranged from 38.6 to 122.8 ng/g dw. Due to rapid urbanization and motorization, Muar river showed an increasing trend of PAHs concentrations when compared to a study conducted about a decade ago. Pulau Merambong shows relatively lower PAHs concentrations as compared to other locations in Peninsular Malaysia. However, there is no previous data in Pulau Merambong to evaluate the trend in the petroleum hydrocarbons distribution and concentrations. In general, this study revealed that the lowest concentrations were detected in downstream of the Muar and Pulau Meranbong, respectively. This study also found abundance of high molecular weight (HMW) PAHs as compared to low molecular weight (LMW) PAHs suggesting predominance of pyrogenic PAH sources via atmospheric and long-range input. The ratio of LMW PAHs to HMW PAHs (LMW/HMW) were in the range of 0.05–0.33 indicating pyrogenic input and this is consistent with other diagnostic ratios

Source type evaluation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface sediments from the Muar River and Pulau Merambong, Peninsular Malaysia

This article is the most recent report of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the Muar River and Pulau Merambong, Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 16 priority pollutant PAHs in addition to methylphenanthrene among alkylated PAHs were analyzed in surface sediments during May 2013. Total PAHs ranged from 212 to 440 and 151 to 412 ng g−1 dw in sediments from the Muar River and the Pulau Merambong, respectively. The Muar River showed an increasing trend of PAH concentrations, while no previous data exist for the Pulau Merambong. Generally, mixed petrogenic and pyrogenic sources of PAHs with predominance of the latter were detected in the study area. Effective management of oil pollution has caused a drastic decrease in petrogenic sources of PAHs