Phenolic Characterization and Geographical Classification of Commercial Extra Virgin Olive Oils Produced in Turkey

The aim of this research was to characterize the extra virgin olive oil samples from different locations in the Aegean coastal area of Turkey in terms of their phenolic compositions for two consecutive years to show the classification of oil samples with respect to harvest year and geography. Forty seven commercial olive oil samples were analyzed with HPLC–DAD, and 17 phenolic compounds were quantified. Hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, vanillic acid, p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, cinnamic acid, luteolin and apigenin were the characteristic phenols observed in all oil samples for two harvest years. Syringic acid, vanillin and m-coumaric acid were the phenolic compounds appeared in the olive oil depending on the harvest year. Partial least square-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) of data revealed that oils from the north Aegean and south Aegean areas had different phenolic profiles. The phenolic compounds, which played significant roles in the discrimination of the olive oils, were tyrosol, oleuropein aglycon, cinnamic acid, apigenin and hydroxytyrosol to tyrosol ratio. The Aegean coastal region is the largest olive oil producer and exporter of Turkey. This study shows that the olive oils from different parts of the region have their own defining characteristics that can be used in the authentication studies and geographical labeling of Turkish olive oils.     

Evaluation of additively manufactured ultraperformance polymers to use as thermal protection systems for spacecraft

In this study, high-temperature thermoplastic polymers were three-dimensional (3D) printed and evaluated for ablation performances for the first time. The purpose of this study is to fabricate, test, and evaluate several ultraperformance thermoplastics, including polyetherimide (PEI), polyether ether ketone (PEEK), and poly(ether ketone ketone) (PEKK) for thermal, flammability, and ablation properties using fused filament fabrication. Among all tested materials, PEKK exhibit the highest char yield while the two PEEKs exhibit the highest decomposition temperature. Although PEI have the lowest onset decomposition temperature, microscale combustion calorimetry results indicate that it has the lowest heat release properties. For the 15 s oxyacetylene test bed (OTB) ablation test, all five materials experienced various amount of intumescent or swelling behavior. Samples after 30 s test experienced greater mass loss among which PEKK and ULTEM 9085 shows the highest char yield. Scanning electron microscopy microstructural analysis of the char and pyrolysis zones reveal highly porous char structures caused by the rapid generation of the volatile decomposition products. To fully exploit the experimental data provided by the OTB, the flowfield generated during aerothermal testing using this heat source was modeled. Computational fluid dynamics analysis using Ansys/Fluent 19.1 code was used to the heat transfer between the ablative surface and the combustion gases generated by the OTB and compared with experimental results.     

nm23 protein expression in renal cell tumors: the role of the cell type

This study investigated nm23 protein expression in renal cell carcinomas to determine the relationship between nm23 protein expression and grade, stage, prognosis and the cell type. 89 cases were examined by immunohistochemistry. Tubular epithelia were homogeneously stained. Cytoplasmic nm23 protein levels were reduced in renal cell carcinoma. nm23 protein levels persisted in oncocytomas, which are accepted to be benign. Cytoplasmic nm23 staining intensity did not show any correlation with stage and grade of tumor nor prognosis. Reduction in nm23 protein levels may have a role during renal cell carcinoma pathogenesis but not in progression or metastasis suppression.     

Clinical features of pediatric Beh?et''s disease

Ageing affects the mechanical properties of skin. Studies using objective measurements on facial skin have been rare and yielded contradictory information. In the present study, the age-related changes occurring in the mechanical properties of facial skin were reviewed using a computerized suction method. A total of 200 healthy women, aged from 17 to 68 years, were enrolled. Data show a significant increase in skin extensibility and a significant decline in elasticity with ageing. These changes become obvious in women approaching 40 years.     

Detection of adulteration of extra-virgin olive oil by chemometric analysis of mid-infrared spectral data

This study focuses on the detection and quantification of extra-virgin olive oil adulteration with different edible oils using mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopy with chemometrics. Mid-IR spectra were manipulated with wavelet compression previous to principal component analysis (PCA). Detection limit of adulteration was determined as 5% for corn–sunflower binary mixture, cottonseed and rapeseed oils. For quantification of adulteration, mid-IR spectral data were manipulated with orthogonal signal correction (OSC) and wavelet compression before partial least square (PLS) analysis. The results revealed that models predict the adulterants, corn–sunflower binary mixture, cottonseed and rapeseed oils, in olive oil with error limits of 1.04, 1.4 and 1.32, respectively. Furthermore, the data were analysed with a general PCA model and PLS discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) to observe the efficiency of the model to detect adulteration regardless of the type of adulterant oil. In this case, detection limit for adulteration is determined as 10%.     

Classification of Turkish olive oils with respect to cultivar,geographic origin and harvest year,using fatty acid profile and mid-IR spectroscopy

Fatty acid composition and mid-infrared spectra of olive oils in combination with chemometric techniques were used in the classification of Turkish olive oils with respect to their varieties, growing location and harvest year. In particular, olive oil samples belonging to five different cultivars were obtained from the same orchard in the middle part of Aegean region and two of these varieties were also received from another orchard in northern part of the same region of Turkey in two consecutive harvest years. Evaluation of nine different fatty acid compositions with principal component analysis revealed clear differentiation with respect to variety, geographical origin and harvest year. On the other hand, mid-infrared spectra also achieved varietal and seasonal discrimination to some extent, but differentiation is not as clear as that obtained using fatty acid compositions.     

Chorioamnionitis Precipitates Perinatal Alterations of Heme-Oxygenase-1 (HO-1) Homeostasis in the Developing Rat Brain

Chorioamnionitis (CHORIO), placental insufficiency, and preterm birth are well-known antecedents of perinatal brain injury (PBI). Heme-oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is an important inducible enzyme in oxidative and inflammatory conditions. In the brain, HO-1 and the iron regulatory receptor, transferrin receptor-1 (TfR1), are known to be involved in iron homeostasis, oxidative stress, and cellular adaptive mechanisms. However, the role of HO pathway in the pathophysiology of PBI has not been previously studied. In this study, we set out to define the ontogeny of the HO pathway in the brain and determine if CHORIO changed its normal developmental regulation. We also aimed to determine the role of HO-1/TfR1 in CHORIO-induced neuroinflammation and peripheral inflammation in a clinically relevant rat model of PBI. We show that HO-1, HO-2, and TfR1 expression are developmentally regulated in the brain during the perinatal period. CHORIO elevates HO-1 and TfR1 mRNA expression in utero and in the early postnatal period and results in sustained increase in HO-1/TfR1 ratios in the brain. This is associated with neuroinflammatory and peripheral immune phenotype supported by a significant increase in brain mononuclear cells and peripheral blood double negative T cells suggesting a role of HO-1/TfR1 pathway dysregulation in CHORIO-induced neuroinflammation.     

The Role of Bismuth as Trace Element on the Solidification Path and Microstructure of Na-Modified AlSi7Mg Alloys

The effects of Bi content as a trace element on the microstructure and the solidification path of A356.2 alloy have been investigated. The alloys containing different Bi levels (0, 20, and 200 ppm) have been modified by sodium. The experimental alloys have been thermally analyzed by using the two-thermocouple method. Metallographic and image analysis techniques have been used to quantitatively examine the microstructural changes occurring at different Bi and Na concentrations. The results indicate how the presence of Bi as a trace element affects the eutectic structure. Upon increasing the Bi level, the nucleation and growth temperatures of eutectic Si raise, and the eutectic Si particles appear coarser in Na-modified alloys. The EBSD analyses show that the crystallographic orientation between eutectic Al and surrounding primary Al dendrites becomes identical in Na-modified Bi-containing alloy. Furthermore, an irregular Bi + (Mg,Na)₃Bi₂ eutectic is formed prior to the precipitation of the eutectic Si, thus reducing the efficiency of Na addition to fully modify the eutectic Si.     

Highly Personalized Information Delivery to Mobile Clients

The inherent limitations of mobile devices necessitate information to be delivered to mobile clients to be highly personalized according to their profiles. This information may be coming from a variety of resources like Web servers, company intranets, email servers. A critical issue for such systems is scalability, that is, the performance of the system should be in acceptable limits when the number of users increases dramatically. Another important issue is being able to express highly personalized information in the user profiles, which requires a querying power as that of SQL on relational databases. Finally, the results should be customized according to user needs, preferences and the mark up language of their mobile device. Since the queries will be executed on the documents fetched over the Internet, it is natural to expect the documents to be XML documents.This paper describes an architecture for mobile network operators to deliver highly personalized information from XML resources to mobile clients. To achieve high scalability in this architecture, we index the user profiles rather than the documents because of the excessively large number of profiles expected in the system. In this way all queries that apply to a document at a given time are executed in parallel through a finite state machine (FSM) approach while parsing the document. Furthermore, the queries that have the same FSM representation are grouped and only one finite state machine is created for each group which contributes to the excellent performance of the system as demonstrated in the performance evaluation section.To provide for user friendliness and expressive power, we have developed a graphical user interface that translates the user profiles into XML-QL. XML-QL's querying power and its elaborate CONSTRUCT statement allows the format of the results to be specified. The results to be pushed to the mobile clients are converted to the markup language of the mobile device such as Wireless Markup Language (WML), CHTML or XHTML by the delivery component of the system.