Search

Sol-gel is an excellent antibacterial agent carrier. Different researchers incorporated various antibacterial substances, including silver nitrate (AgNO3), quarternary ammonium chloride (QAC), and titanium dioxide (TiO2) in sol-gel. However, there is limited study on the influence of pH and acid hydrolysis time (ageing) to form sol-gel. Besides, few investigations have been made on the influence of fabric structure and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) incorporation into fabrics by the sol-gel method. This study also compared the light and heavy fabrics in terms of sol-gel application and the advantages of sol-gel over other AgNPs incorporation methods. The sol-gel-AgNPs incorporated fabric samples were characterized by Ultra Violet Spectroscopy (UV-VIS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and Energy Dispersion spectroscopy (EDS). For AgNPs synthesis in a green way, we used Calendula arvensis, a Mediterranean weed. This study found, that for sol-gel formation the minimum acid hydrolysis time was 5.30 hours, 6.30 hours, and 8.00 hours at 60 ºC, 25 ºC, and 3 ºC, respectively. After ageing, a minuscule amount of alkaline was needed for gelation. Seven different methods for incorporating AgNPs through sol-gel have been illustrated. The lower molarity of AgNO3, having a more significant portion in the sol-gel solution, had excellent antibacterial activity and wash fastness. Besides, the ex-situ method was better than the in-situ method. Among different types of cotton fabric, lightweight knit fabric showed much better antibacterial activity than heavier twill fabric.

Advancements in technology and material sciences lead new solutions to be used in civil engineering. PolyUrethane Flexible Joints (PUFJ) and Fiber Reinforced PolyUrethanes (FRPU) are among those innovative solutions. PUFJ implemented systems comprise of seismic preventive buffer material between masonry infill walls and reinforced concrete (RC) frames, whereas FRPU solution is designed for covering the wall surfaces with thin composite strips. Both methods are primarily developed for increasing the ductility capacities of buildings while sustaining the overall structural strength without compromising on the safety of these systems against earthquakes. In this article, test results of the quasi-static cyclic experiments as well as dynamic tests on the shake tables including harmonic forces operating in resonance are presented. Moreover, numerical analyses are performed in order to comprehend the behavior of PUFJ implemented frames constituted with different masonry materials than above which are under various loading conditions. The outcomes confirmed the high efficiency of the proposed solutions, which at the same time meet the strict requirements of the modern seismic standards.

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between ABO blood groups and Rhesus factor (Rf) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (Sars-CoV-2), as well as the risk of infection susceptibility and death according to pre-existing comorbidities.

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of task format on pre-service mathematics teachers' creative problem-posing performance. Methods: In this quantitative study, a figural and a written pattern related to daily life with the same mathematical structure were presented to participants and they were asked to write as many problems as they could. The problems were analyzed based on whether they were viable and then on the components of fluency, flexibility, and originality of creativity. Results: The results of the study indicated that, although the flexibility and originality scores in the figural pattern were higher, the only statistical difference was observed in the originality component. Moreover, it has been found that some of the participants wrote similar problems in both tasks; however, the problems in the figural pattern were inclined to be more difficult. Discussion: Developing students' creative-thinking skills is a main purpose of mathematics education research (Mann, 2006). However, the results of the research have indicated that the teachers' knowledge of how to develop students' creative-thinking skills is still lacking (Shriki & Lavy, 2012) and, consequently, students are provided with few opportunities to experience creative thinking and learning in class (Silver, 1997; Sriraman, 2005). Problem posing has a close association with creativity as well as with problem solving (Haylock, 1997; Silver, 1997). Therefore, to develop creative-thinking skills, learning environments should be enriched with problem-posing tasks. The results of this research do not assert that only one of the figural or written pattern types must be preferred to stimulate creative-thinking skills in the context of problem posing. Instead, the results emphasize that each of the written and figural patterns has its own strengths. Limitations: The fluency, flexibility, and originality scores are affected by the sample size. Conducting similar studies on larger samples may provide more valid conclusions about possible differences. This study has taken two different task formats into account as follow; being in written form related to daily life or including figural patterns. Figural patterns can also be structured based on whether they explicitly provide the pattern rule (Barbosa & Vale, 2016). The effect of these types of problem-posing tasks on creativity components is another case that can be investigated. Conclusions: Considering these results together, while including problem-posing tasks for both written and figural patterns to improve the flexibility and originality components of creativity is supported, the use of problem-posing tasks for figural patterns may be further recommended.

There are many academic studies in the literature examining educational digital applications. These studies documented the positive effects of practices on attitudes and academic achievement. Information technologies which have become a part of our lives have taken their place in our education system and contributed to education system in many ways. Modern educational environments have benefited from information technology devices in terms of raising human profile in accordance with 21st century skills and many academic studies have been carried out covering different courses, different levels and different purposes in line with the effectiveness of these devices. This situation brought out the need to create a perspective by gathering the works under common themes. In our study, 33 study that took place between the years 2013 to 2019 in different regions from Turkey in this direction has been selected. These studies were evaluated in 8 different themes and 20 subconcepts. The effects of educational digital applications on academic achievement, scientific process skills and attitudes of students are positive. From time to time, the effect of gender was observed on perceptions and attitudes. In-school and out-of-school activities are effective in acquiring 21st century skills. In some studies, limitations such as physical space, time and cost hindered the realization of activities and sometimes it was a negative situation that the trainers did not have the necessary training formation and felt inadequate for these activities. Existing curricula, which are shaped within the framework of knowledge-based examination system, were also seen as another limiting factor. At the end of the research, suggestions were made for the effective use of educational digital applications in the education system.

Meteorological drought, defined as a decrease in the average amount of precipitation, is among the most insidious natural disasters. Not knowing when a drought will occur (its onset) makes it difficult to predict and monitor it. Scientists face significant challenges in accurately predicting and monitoring global droughts, despite using various machine learning techniques and drought indices developed in recent years. Optimization methods and hybrid models are being developed to overcome these challenges and create effective drought policies. In this study, drought analysis was conducted using The Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) with monthly precipitation data from 1920 to 2022 in the Tromsø region. Models with different input structures were created using the obtained SPI values. These models were then analyzed with The Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) by means of different optimization methods: The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), The Genetic Algorithm (GA), The Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO), and The Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), and PSO optimization of Support Vector Machine (SVM-PSO). Correlation coefficient (r), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), and RMSE-Standard Deviation Ratio (RSR) served as performance evaluation criteria. The results of this study demonstrated that, while successful results were obtained in all commonly used algorithms except for ANFIS-GWO, the best performance values obtained using SPI12 input data were achieved with ANFIS-ABC-M04, exhibiting r: 0.9516, NSE: 0.9054, and RMSE: 0.3108.

This paper presents two novel bio-inspired particle swarm optimisation (PSO) variants, namely biased eavesdropping PSO (BEPSO) and altruistic heterogeneous PSO (AHPSO). These algorithms are inspired by types of group behaviour found in nature that have not previously been exploited in search algorithms. The primary search behaviour of the BEPSO algorithm is inspired by eavesdropping behaviour observed in nature coupled with a cognitive bias mechanism that enables particles to make decisions on cooperation. The second algorithm, AHPSO, conceptualises particles in the swarm as energy-driven agents with bio-inspired altruistic behaviour, which allows for the formation of lending–borrowing relationships. The mechanisms underlying these algorithms provide new approaches to maintaining swarm diversity, which contributes to the prevention of premature convergence. The new algorithms were tested on the 30, 50 and 100-dimensional CEC’13, CEC’14 and CEC’17 test suites and various constrained real-world optimisation problems, as well as against 13 well-known PSO variants, the CEC competition winner, differential evolution algorithm L-SHADE and the recent bio-inspired I-CPA metaheuristic. The experimental results show that both the BEPSO and AHPSO algorithms provide very competitive performance on the unconstrained test suites and the constrained real-world problems. On the CEC13 test suite, across all dimensions, both BEPSO and AHPSO performed statistically significantly better than 10 of the 15 comparator algorithms, while none of the remaining 5 algorithms performed significantly better than either BEPSO or AHPSO. On the CEC17 test suite, on the 50D and 100D problems, both BEPSO and AHPSO performed statistically significantly better than 11 of the 15 comparator algorithms, while none of the remaining 4 algorithms performed significantly better than either BEPSO or AHPSO. On the constrained problem set, in terms of mean rank across 30 runs on all problems, BEPSO was first, and AHPSO was third.

It is thought that it is important to determine the attitudes of the postgraduate students we can see as academicians of the future in terms of making education activities by mobile devices quality and effective learning activities. The purpose of this study is determining the postgraduate Students' opinions about the mobile learning and attitudes about mobile learning. The mixed research model was adopted in this study. The research was carried out in Konya Necmettin Erbakan University, Ahmet Kelesoglu Education Faculties with 30 students studying in different departments in 2016-2017 academic year. In the result it is reached that Postgraduate Students' attitudes about mobile learning doesn't change according to their gender status, age groups, education status and daily Internet using but change according to mobile device ownership status. Also, Qualitative findings were positive opinions in the use of mobile technologies in education, mobile technologies benefit teachers and students, the effects of mobile technology on attitude and motivation, future of mobile technology education headings. There are very few negative opinions in these headings. "Which is the best lesson for using mobile technology?" The answer to this question has often been defined as science, information technology and social science.

In this study, lemon, and sour cherry seed essential oil-added glycerol and/or sorbitol-plasticized corn, potato, rice, tapioca, and wheat starch-based edible films were produced using the casting method. Starch, essential oil type and glycerol and/or sorbitol effects on the thickness, moisture content, water solubility, swelling index, and water vapor transmission rate of the films have been studied. The interaction of the film components was evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It was seen that wheat starch-based control films give the lowest thickness value (0.010 mm). Wheat starch-based control films (15.50%), sour cherry seed essential oil-added corn starch (17.80%), and lemon essential oil-added rice starch-based composite films (17.70%) have high moisture content. The lowest solubility values were obtained from wheat starch control (22%) and sour cherry seed essential oil-added corn starch composite (16.40%) films. The highest swelling index values were obtained from wheat starch-based control (210.90-289.0%), sour cherry seed essential oil-added tapioca starch (388.80%), and lemon essential oil-added potato starch-based (433.20%) composite films. Rice starch-based control films have the lowest water vapor transmission rate (3.30×10−8−5.70×10−8). FTIR spectra of edible composite films proved that there is no chemical interaction between the film component and that they kept their structure. The main difference of this study from previous studies was the use of sour cherry seed essential oil for the first time in edible film production and the comparison of the film properties of corn, potato, rice, tapioca, and wheat starch-based edible films plasticized with glycerol or sorbitol.