Current Urban Discourse,Urban Transformation and Gentrification in Istanbul

In the mid-2000s, unprecedented economic growth provided a catalyst for Istanbul's transformation. Tolga İslam outlines the background to large-scale urban development and renewal projects that have been undertaken by local authorities throughout the city. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Nucleation Effect of PbSe Additive on Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oδ Glass Ceramics

Glass and Ceramics - The crystallisation kinetics and effects of doping on Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oδ (BSCCO) glass ceramic system with 0.0%, 0.1%, 0.3% and 0.5% PbSe were investigated in this study....     

3DPointCaps++: Learning 3D Representations with Capsule Networks

International Journal of Computer Vision - We present 3DPointCaps++ for learning robust, flexible and generalizable 3D object representations without requiring heavy annotation efforts or...     

Is ergosterol a new microbiological quality parameter in foods or not?

One of the most important spoilage factors of foods is molds. Therefore, it is important to determine the presence of mold in foods quickly because of the deterioration of aroma, flavor, appearance, and textural structure as well as the mycotoxins, which are toxic secondary metabolites of molds. Twenty-five percent of agricultural products worldwide are infected with mycotoxins directly or indirectly. With the global population increasingly rising, the need for access of safe and adequate food in the future has great importance. Quantification of ergosterol, a constituent of the membrane of molds and a precursor of vitamin D₂, is a feasible method for determination of fungal contamination in foods. The aim of this review is to discuss the possibility of using ergosterol as an indicator of mold growth in foods.     

Effects of the ARCS-V-based motivational strategies on online learners' academic performance,motivation, volition,and course interest

This exploratory experimental study investigates the impact of motivational strategies based on the Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction, and Volition (ARCS-V) model on online learners' academic performance, motivation, volition, and course interest. The research was conducted over an 11-week semester with 122 undergraduate online learners within two groups. One group received a traditional e-course, while the other group was offered the course with extra motivational strategies derived from the ARCS-V model. The results revealed that the group who used motivational strategies showed significantly higher gains in motivation, academic performance, and course interest scores. However, there were no significant differences between the groups regarding the volition. Furthermore, the motivation and interest variables were measured with Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction subscales of the ARCS-V model. In terms of interest variable, there was only a statistically significant difference on the Attention subscale. Regarding motivation variable, the results also showed a statistically significant difference on the attention, confidence, and satisfaction subsections of the ARCS-V model. The findings of the present study offer insights into ARCSV model-based research by examining the effects of the model as a valid and reliable framework for online learning environments. The implications and directions for future research are then discussed.     

Tenure and turnover of academics in six undergraduate programs in the United States

The mobility of faculty members in different undergraduate programs is influenced by different factors, and so inter-program variability can be expected in mobility rates. This study makes use of course catalogs for the collection of data related to the tenure and turnover of academics from six undergraduate programs in the United States. Included in the study are 34 universities ranked in the top 100 US universities according to USNews for which a minimum of 15 years of course catalogs are available. For the study, 1345 course catalogs were used to attain information about 19,353 faculty members. It was found that economics faculty members have the shortest average tenure and economics programs have the highest turnover among all six programs, while physics and chemistry are the least mobile programs. The other three programs—history, mathematics and political science—fall somewhere in between. Private and high ranking universities are less mobile than public and low ranking universities respectively. It is found that turnover rates fell and average tenures increased after the 1970s.     

Productivity and costs in the course of timber transportation with the Koller K300 cable system in Turkey

This study was carried out on very steep and difficult terrain. Whole trees were logged uphill to the forest road by a Koller K300 cable crane. Investigations were carried out by time studies for which the repetition time measurement method was selected. Through time studies, the productivity and cost of the Koller cable system were evaluated.     

Hydroxyapatite containing superporous hydrogel composites: synthesis and in-vitro characterization

The synthesis of an acrylamide-based superporous hydrogel composite (SPHC) with hydroxyapatite (HA) was realized by solution polymerization technique. The characterization studies were performed by FTIR studies, determination of swelling kinetics, measurement of mechanical properties, SEM/EDAX studies and cytocompatibility tests. The FTIR and EDAX studies revealed the incorporation of HA in superporous hydrogel (SPH) structure. The results obtained from swelling experiments showed that, although the extent of swelling was decreased after incorporation of HA in SPH structure, the time to reach the equilibrium swelling was not affected for SPHC. This result indicated that, the presence of HA did not block the capillary channels and the interconnected pore structure was maintained which were consistent with the images obtained from SEM photographs. The results obtained from mechanical tests showed that, in the presence of HA, the compression strength of the hydrogel composite was improved significantly when compared to SPH structure. The compressive modulus for the SPHC increased to 6.59 ± 0.35 N/mm² whereas it was 0.63 ± 0.04 N/mm² for the SPH. The cytocompatibility test which was performed by using L929 fibroblasts showed that both the SPH and SPHC materials were cytocompatible towards fibroblasts. The synthesized superporous hydrogel composite possesses suitable properties especially for bone tissue engineering applications and shall be considered as a novel scaffold.