Reinvention of tradition as an urban image: The case of Ankara Citadel

Debates on urban tourism have been coupled with a widespread discourse on 'placelessness', 'loss of identity', and 'standardization' related to the modernist ideology of planning. In this respect, utilizing this historic urban fabric has become important as a means of recreating an urban image. Ironically, efforts to avoid standardization are caught in another trap of sameness and blandness, because a very similar vocabulary is used in the ability of those tourist-historic places to meet the expectations of the universal tourist industry. In this context, we analyzed the recent efforts to integrate an inner-city area, Ankara Citadel and its vicinity, focusing on the changing identity owing to the introduction of income-generating and tourist-attraction facilities. The nature and consequences of this transformation have been investigated in terms of the issues of preservation practice, economic feasibility, public interest, and its ethics and legitimacy

Direct and Transdentinal (Indirect) Antibacterial Activity of Commercially Available Dental Gel Formulations against Streptococcus mutans

**Objective** To evaluate the direct and transdentinal (indirect) agar diffusion antibacterial activity of different commercially available antibacterial dental gel formulations against Streptococcus mutans. Materials and **Methods** The commercially available dental gel formulations were Corsodyl® (COG, 1% chlorhexidine), Cervitec® (CEG, 0.2% chlorhexidine + 0.2% sodium fluoride), Forever Bright® (FOB, aloe vera), Gengigel® (GEG, 0.2% hyaluronic acid), 35% phosphoric acid gel and distilled water (control). Direct agar diffusion was performed by isolating three wells from brain-heart infusion agar plates using sterile glass pipettes attached to a vacuum pump and adding 0.1 ml of the gels to each well. Transdentinal (indirect) agar diffusion was performed by applying gel to 0.2- and 0.5-mm-thick human dentin discs previously etched with phosphoric acid and rinsed with distilled water. Zones formed around the wells and the dentin discs were measured and analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests with Bonferroni correction (p 0.01). COG and CEG exhibited higher antibacterial effects compared to FOB and GEG (p < 0.01) in both direct and transdentinal (indirect) testing procedures. GEG did not show any antimicrobial activity in transdentinal (indirect) testing. **Conclusion** Commercially available dental gels inhibited S. mutans, which may indicate their potential as cavity disinfectants