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The product of grapes with the highest added value is wine. Wine grapes play an important role in the evaluation of barren lands, where no other plants generally grow. Viticulture in Türkiye is generally conducted on small areas of agricultural land. In order to develop viticulture, it is important to determine suitable areas. This study presents a model for assessing land suitability for cultivation of grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.) in the Ankara region (Türkiye). The aim is to provide a spatial decision support system based on geographic information system multi-criteria assessment, taking into account the perspectives of expert agricultural engineers and local product growers. In this study, 11 criteria were evaluated to determine the most suitable locations for grapevine cultivation. The best worst method was used to calculate the weights of the determined evaluation criteria. When the spatial distribution of the areas suitable for grapevine cultivation was examined from the resulting map produced, it was seen that 1879.29 km2 (7%) of highly suitability areas, 5062.03 km2 (20%) of medium suitability areas, 4706.20 km2 (18%) of low suitability areas, and 8355.36 km2 (33%) of unsuitable areas were detected. According to the results obtained, the southern parts of the study area are more suitable for grapevine cultivation. This study will be an important and useful regional guide for agricultural land use planning and the cultivation of grapevines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing land suitability models for strategically critical agricultural products to expand sustainable agricultural policies and sensitive agriculture management has become a significant trend. This study aims to improve a unique land suitability model for hazelnut cultivation by applying the criteria set (7 main criteria, 35 sub-criteria) including qualitative and quantitative reasons, integrated fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, inverse distance weighting, multi-criteria decision analysis, geographic information system, and weighted linear combination approaches. The model developed in the present study was applied and tested in Ünye District of Ordu Province, where hazelnut production in the Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey is an important economic activity. While 71.17% of the study area is classified as very highly suitable, highly suitable, and moderately suitable, 28.83% of the study area has marginally suitable and unsuitable properties for hazelnut cultivation. Generally, it was determined that the coastal parts of the study area were the most suitable areas for hazelnut growing. The hazelnut land suitability model's two main criteria impacting the final score values are climatic and topographic conditions, respectively. Heavy metal pollution and physical, chemical, and fertility conditions related to soil properties followed these, respectively. The first ten sub-criteria with the highest weight value were determined as elevation, annual average temperature, annual average precipitation, aspect, annual average relative humidity, nickel (pollution), slope, annual average maximum temperature, lead (pollution), and soil depth, respectively. Existing hazelnut cultivation areas were used to test the model. Of the existing cultivation areas, 75.59% coincided with the very highly suitable, highly suitable, and moderately suitable classes presented in this study, while 17.15% were in marginally suitable and 7.26% in unsuitable classes. The study results reveal that the hazelnut land suitability model developed is suitable in mild climate conditions. Using this model as a general transition model will be beneficial to test it in areas containing similar climatic conditions and various soil properties. This study will create a rational background in ensuring the sustainable food production system and security, agricultural land use planning, strategic planning and management of the hazelnut plant, increasing agricultural productivity and income, and the ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey coal reserves are mainly lignite (brown coal) and the majority of these reserves contain high-ash/sulfur coals, therefore, it is important to evaluate these low-quality lignite coals. Most of the produced lignite is utilized at the coal power stations in Turkey. The polluting gases containing sulfur dioxide after burning of low-quality coals are the main reason for air pollution, acid rain, and some respiratory systems diseases. In order to avoid these problems, high ash and sulfur-containing coal in our country need to be improved. In this study, the sink-float tests (heavy media separation) were applied to increase the quality of coal samples so that the ash and the impurities could be removed using a high ash-sulfur content coal sample (36.96% ash, 6.94% S and calorific value 3185 kcal.kg−1) taken from TKI (Turkish Coal Enterprises) Çan (Çanakkale, Turkey) lignite coalfield. The results of the float-sink tests showed that the most convenient washing operating density was 1.6 g/cm3, and the weight yield of the clean coal was 53.16%wt. (70.94% coal recovery) with 16.46% ash, 6.14% S with calorific value 5000 kcal.kg−1 using 10–0.5 mm size fraction of the coal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, determination of habitat altitude effect on the total phenolic contents, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of flower and leaf extracts from Hypericum montbretii, H. orientale and H. perforatum species was aimed. The plants were collected randomly from forages (altitudes were ranged from 430 to 1105 m a.s.l.) located in Western Black Sea Region, Turkey. Antioxidant properties of ethanolic extracts were determined with DPPH and ABTS assay and antimicrobial activities of the extracts on Bacillus pumilis NRRL BD-142, B. subtilis NRRL B-209, B. licheniformis NRRL-B-1001, B. cereus NRRL B-3711, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 33862, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Listeria inocua ATCC 33090, L. monocytogenes ATCC 7644 and Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 were examined. Total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of Hypericum species changed depending on the habitat altitude. The antimicrobial activity of the ethanolic extracts was evaluated by minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) method. Flower and leaf extracts exhibited a broad antibacterial spectrum, but they were not effective against Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922). Phenolic contents of all Hypericum species and antimicrobial activity of only H. perforatum extracts were significantly increased by altitude rising, but no positive correlation was detected in antioxidant activity of extracts due to habitat altitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Dental education plays an important role in providing students with the opportunity to develop their evidence-based knowledge and clinical skills regarding patient-specific preventive care and caries management strategies. The aims of this study were to examine the knowledge, attitude, and self-perceived competency towards preventive dentistry among final-year dental students and to investigate their preventive practice for high-caries-risk children. Methods. Data were collected from a convenience sample of 126 dental students using a questionnaire. The IBM SPSS Statistics version 21 was used for data analysis. Results. A total of 126 students completed the questionnaire, and 63% of the respondents were female. Significant gender differences were found in the total Professional Preventive Knowledge Scale (PPKS) (p=0.016) and its subscales of the noncariogenic nutrition (p=0.015), dental hygiene/clinical examination (p<0.001), caries-preventive practice (p=0.02), and the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI) (p=0.028). Significant differences were observed in the total PPKS (p=0.003) and its subscales of the noncariogenic nutrition (p=0.043) and caries risk management (p=0.006) in terms of self-perceived need to receive education and training. Caries-preventive practice was correlated with the self-perceived competency (r = 0.279; p=0.002), the attitudes (r = 0.394; p<0.001), the total PPKS (r = 0.457; p<0.001) and its all subscales of dental hygiene and clinical examination (r = 0.425; p<0.001), noncariogenic nutrition (r = 0.410; p<0.001), and caries risk management (r = 0.184; p=0.039). The self-perceived competency was positively correlated with the total PPKS (r = 0.192; p=0.031) and its subscale of noncariogenic nutrition (r = 0.259; p=0.003). Greater self-perceived competence, more positive attitudes, and good knowledge regarding preventive dentistry were found to be important predictors of the caries-preventive practice of dental students, explaining 31% of the variance (adjusted R2 = 0.312, p<0.001). Conclusion. 40% of dental students reported educational and training needs regarding the diagnosis, caries-preventive agents, and risk-based treatment plan. These results should be taken into account by the stakeholders in developing the national core curriculum for undergraduate Turkish dental education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]