The Predictable Future of Bio-economic Society

This theoric study aims to draw a picture of midterm future by terms of socio-economic environment. While doing this, we mostly assume ‘social structure’ as dependent variable and the ‘new economy’ ( green energy and new production ) as independent variable. As known, social transformations take more time due to the human generations lifespans, according to technological or economical transformations. İn fact social factors effect economic and technological factors in long term deeply. But in this study we will be generally limited by the mids of 21. Century. According to Jeremy Rifkin, great economic transformations in history appears when a new communication technology interact with a new energy system. New communication system make it possible to organize the more complex civilization, which the new energy system created. We are discussing the socio-economic future of human life on earth; how people will distribute on geography, how they work and how governments will change into new forms of social regulators? IBM, Cisco Systems, Siemens and General Electric, are all trying to construct a smart power grid. This intelligent energy network will embrace virtually every facet of life. Homes, offices and vehicles will continuously communicate wtih each other, sharing information and energy on a 24/7 basis. How this happenings effect the social community all over the world? With other entries like the rising of transnational enterprises, the individual independence on energy acquiring, will destroy the social contracts which establishes nations. İndividuals normally gets together for creating economies of scale. Because individuals cannot build large energy plants like coal plants or nuclear plants by themselves. As a result governments become to loose their basic functional reason of existance againts citizens.

Offline signature verification using classifier combination of HOG and LBP features

We present an offline signature verification system based on a signature’s local histogram features. The signature is divided into zones using both the Cartesian and polar coordinate systems and two different histogram features are calculated for each zone: histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) and histogram of local binary patterns (LBP). The classification is performed using Support Vector Machines (SVMs), where two different approaches for training are investigated, namely global and user-dependent SVMs. User-dependent SVMs, trained separately for each user, learn to differentiate a user’s signature from others, whereas a single global SVM trained with difference vectors of query and reference signatures’ features of all users, learns how to weight dissimilarities. The global SVM classifier is trained using genuine and forgery signatures of subjects that are excluded from the test set, while userdependent SVMs are separately trained for each subject using genuine and random forgeries. The fusion of all classifiers (global and user-dependent classifiers trained with each feature type), achieves a 15.41% equal error rate in skilled forgery test, in the GPDS-160 signature database without using any skilled forgeries in training

Weathering characteristics of impregnated and coated calabrian pine wood

This study was designed to investigate the weathering characteristics of Calabrian pine (Pinus brutia) wood. The wood specimens were impregnated with some copper-based chemicals and then varnish coated. As copper-based chemicals, Celcure C4, Korasit KS, and Tanalith E 8000 were used for impregnation. Polyurethane varnish (PV) and water-based varnish (WBV) were used as coating materials. Firstly, Calabrian pine wood was impregnated with 2,5 % and 5 % aqueous solutions of chemicals then coated with polyurethane varnish and WBV. Impregnated and coated Calabrian pine wood specimens were subjected to 6 months of natural weathering in Mugla, Turkey. After weathering; surface hardness, surface roughness, and adhesion strength changes of Calabrian pine wood specimens were determined. Impregnation caused to increase in surface hardness values of Calabrian pine. Surface hardness increases of water-based varnish coated Calabrian pine specimens were higher than polyurethane varnish coated Calabrian pine specimens. Impregnation resulted in higher surface roughness values of Calabrian pine specimens.  Polyurethane varnish coated Calabrian pine specimens gave higher surface roughness than water-based varnish coated Calabrian pine specimens. The adhesion strength values of all treatment groups were decreased after weathering. In general, adhesion strength decreases of water-based varnish coated Calabrian pine specimens were higher than that of polyurethane varnish coated Calabrian pine specimens. The concentration levels of chemicals did not have a significant effect on surface roughness and adhesion strength of Calabrian pine wood after weathering.  &nbsp

MAPPING OF VEHICLE EMISSIONS IN ZONGULDAK PROVINCE

Increase in the rate of individual vehicle use and decrease in the usage habits of public transportation results in significant increase in traffic-related emissions. One of the most important factor among these is the number of vehicles that increases day by day especially in developing countries. In Zonguldak, the number of vehicles have also increased by 21% in the last five years. For that reason we focused on to determine the effects of urban transportation on air quality in the city center of Zonguldak/Turkey. The main objective of the study was to determine pollutant emissions in different parts of a highway and present it on emission maps. In this context, hourly vehicle counts were conducted at Zonguldak D010 highway in four zones in the coastal area. In addition, speed counts were carried out in the same zones. Emissions were calculated by the obtained data and IPCC guidance was used for these calculations. The IPCC guidelines include main headings such as energy, industrial processes, agriculture and waste. In this study, emission related data under the head of “energy” were used. Emission intensity maps for Zonguldak province were established by using the obtained values. The results of the study show that fuel consumption was the highest between 08:00 and 09:00 a.m. It decreases between 12:00 and 13:00 at noon and then tends to increase again between 18:00 and 19:00 p.m. Pollutant emissions were also higher in the morning and evening hours, depending on fuel consumption. In this study only the main arterial road was selected as study area. In future studies, by choosing whole road segments, the study area can be expanded and more accurate and reliable results can be obtained

Surgical and Radiosurgical Treatment of the Pituitary Neuroendocrine Tumors

Pituitary neuroendocrine tumors (PitNETs) arising from adenohypophyseal cells are generally accepted as benign. It is a very heterogeneous group of tumors according to their origin, biological behavior, and growth patterns. It is the third most common intracranial tumor type after meningiomas and gliomas. Transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) is the primary treatment of choice in all PitNETs except for lactotroph tumors, which are primarily treated with dopamine agonists. In this book section, surgical approaches in the treatment of PitNETs will be explained. In addition, PitNET radiosurgery will be explained in detail by using current literature information

The role of performing a routine four-quadrant cervical biopsy in patients with negative colposcopic findings in increasing the identification rate of cervical intraepithelial neoplasms

Aim: In patients with high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV), there is no consensus on the inclusion of cervical biopsy for diagnostic purposes in cases whereas there is no pathological finding in colposcopy. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of simultaneous routine cervical biopsy in patients with normal colposcopic findings on the rate of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia diagnosis. Methods: This retrospective study included 119 patients with colposcopy indications who had no cervical pathology between January 2015 and March 2017 and the histopathological results were evaluated. Results: The mean age of the population was 45.75±9.52 years. The histopathological results obtained in our study patients are as follows; 38.7% (n=46) LSIL, 28.7% (n=33) chronic cervicitis, 15, 3 % (n=19) coilositosis, 9.2% (n=11) HSIL, 2.5% (n=5) adenocarcinoma, 1.7% (n=2) carcinoma in situ and 2.1% (n=3) squamous carcinoma. LSIL 33 (27.5%), HSIL and advanced lesion 11 (9.2%) were detected in patients with normal cervical cytology before colposcopy. LSIL 26 (21.7%), HSIL and advanced lesion were found to be 13 (10.8%) in patients with abnormal cervical cytology. There was no significant difference in terms of biopsy pathology results between normal and non-normal cervical cytology results. Conclusions: In patients with HPV positive and normal colposcopic findings, adding simultaneous routine four-quadrant cervical biopsy to the colposcopy might increase the detection rate of cervical intraepithelial lesions. &nbsp

Contamination of Low Frictional Elastomeric Ligatures by Streptococcus mutans: A Prospective RT-PCR and AFM Study

Objective: To compare Streptococcus mutans colonization between low-friction elastomeric ligatures and to correlate microbial colonization levels with the surface roughness status.Methods: The study included 160 premolars of 10 patients. During the study period, which consisted of 4 sessions each lasting 4 weeks, the ligature types Slide™ Low-Friction Ligature (Leone, Firenze, Italy), Tough-O Energy™ (Rocky Mountain Orthodontics, Denver, USA), and Sili Ties™ (Dentsply Sirona, Surrey KT13 0NY, UK), and steel ligatures (American Orthodontics, Sheboygan, USA) as a control, were fixed to the premolar teeth by clockwise rotation among the jaw quadrants. The plaque index (PI) and gingival index (GI) were obtained before bonding (T0), 6 weeks after bonding (T1), and subsequently every 4 weeks (T2, T3, T4). Presence of S. mutans was analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction at T1, T2, T3, T4. Surface roughness was evaluated with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) before ligation (Ra0) and after (Ra1) ligation. The paired t-test, ANOVA, repeated measures of ANOVA, and the Kruskal–Wallis test were used for the statistical analysis.Results: S. mutans colonization was significantly higher on the Slide group (P .05).Conclusion:S. mutans colonization showed variations in low-friction elastomeric ligatures independent of surface roughness. Ringshaped low-friction elastomeric ligatures were not different from the steel ligature in terms of S. mutans colonization

Lithium promotes long-term neurological recovery after spinal cord injury in mice by enhancing neuronal survival, gray and white matter remodeling, and long-distance axonal regeneration

Spinal cord injury (SCI) induces neurological deficits associated with long-term functional impairments. Since the current treatments remain ineffective, novel therapeutic options are needed. Besides its effect on bipolar mood disorder, lithium was reported to have neuroprotective activity in different neurodegenerative conditions, including SCI. In SCI, the effects of lithium on long-term neurological recovery and neuroplasticity have not been assessed. We herein investigated the effects of intraperitoneally administered lithium chloride (LiCl) on motor coordination recovery, electromyography (EMG) responses, histopathological injury and remodeling, and axonal plasticity in mice exposed to spinal cord transection. At a dose of 0.2, but not 2.0 mmol/kg, LiCl enhanced motor coordination and locomotor activity starting at 28 days post-injury (dpi), as assessed by a set of behavioral tests. Following electrical stimulation proximal to the hemitransection, LiCl at 0.2 mmol/kg decreased the latency and increased the amplitude of EMG responses in the denervated hindlimb at 56 dpi. Functional recovery was associated with reduced gray and white matter atrophy rostral and caudal to the hemitransection, increased neuronal survival and reduced astrogliosis in the dorsal and ventral horns caudal to the hemitransection, and increased regeneration of long-distance axons proximal and distal to the lesion site in mice receiving 0.2 mmol/kg, but not 2 mmol/kg LiCl, as assessed by histochemical and immunohistochemical studies combined with anterograde tract tracing. Our results indicate that LiCl induces long-term neurological recovery and neuroplasticity following SCI.TUBA ; Istanbul Medipol University ; Turkish Academy of Science

Tunable Anion-Selective Transport through Monolayer Graphene and Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

Membranes that selectively filter for both anions and cations are central to technological applications from clean energy generation to desalination devices. 2D materials have immense potential as these ion-selective membranes due to their thinness, mechanical strength, and tunable surface chemistry; however, currently, only cation-selective membranes have been reported. Here we demonstrate the controllable cation and anion selectivity of both monolayer graphene and hexagonal boron nitride. In particular, we measure the ionic current through membranes grown by chemical vapor deposition containing well-known defects inherent to scalably produced and wet-transferred 2D materials. We observe a striking change from cation selectivity with monovalent ions to anion selectivity by controlling the concentration of multivalent ions and inducing charge inversion on the 2D membrane. Furthermore, we find good agreement between our experimental data and theoretical predictions from the Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz equation and use this model to extract selectivity ratios. These tunable selective membranes conduct up to 500 anions for each cation and thus show potential for osmotic power generation