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Citrus chlorotic dwarf disease (CCDD) has been associated with loss of productivity in citrus species. Especially in the grapefruit species this loss can reach up to 50%. The causative agent for the disease is Citrus chlorotic dwarf associated virus. Some species in the citrus family can develop resistance to the virus and overcome the symptoms associated with the disease but in those cases they may act as the source of the virus to the surrounding citrus species. Virus management studies mainly focus on the introgression of available virus resistance genes into valuable plant cultivars. In this study, we focused host based aspect of the resistance against the virus. Clementine mandarin × Minneola tangelo hybrid population was created in the Alata Horticultural Research Institute field in 2008. This population showed a resistance to the disease development and we analyzed 186 individuals with a total of 2806 markers. DArT-SNP markers were utilized for the mapping studies. According to our results 9 linkage groups were obtained for Clementine and Minneola. The total length of these groups was 798.70 cm for Clementine and 423.7 cm for Minneola. The total number of markers in the linkage groups was 1536 for Clementine and 1270 for Minneola. The average distance between two markers was 0.51 cm and 0.33 cm for Clementine and Minneola, respectively. 15 QTL loci (with LOD ≥ 3) were associated with CCDD resistance. All of these QTLs' were specifically determined in Clementine linkage map on LG2, LG3, LG5, LG6 and LG8. Host based genetic characteristics that enable the resistance to the disease were identified by QTL based analysis. These results can pave the way of genetic screening of the resistant versus vulnerable species as well as individuals within the species. Moreover, based on this data genetic manipulations or hybridizations based on the genetic markers can be considered in the future to increase the productivity and to decrease the losses associated with CCDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments often use curfews as counterinsurgency measures. Do such state actions affect citizens' political preferences? We argue that citizens' responses depend on their group alignment. Citizens who are aligned with the government are more likely to interpret state actions as serving their interests and reward the governing parties as a result. Citizens who are aligned with the insurgent movement, however, are likely to interpret these same actions as targeted and disengage from politics: they have no reason to reward the governing parties and may also be fearful of expressing support for the parties affiliated with the insurgent movement. We find support for this argument with survey data from Turkey, fielded before and during curfews. When exposed to curfews, Turks generally increase their support for the governing party. However Kurds do not increase their support for the governing party or the opposition; instead, we present strong evidence that they withdraw their support from the Kurdish opposition and become more hesitant to express any political preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Militant groups that are in armed conflict with a government often coexist with political parties that have ethnic or ideological connections to them. In this article, we explore the extent to which electoral support received by militant associated opposition parties and nationally incumbent political parties influences subnational variation in militant attacks. We argue, and empirically demonstrate, that militants strategically target localities where the levels of electoral support for the opposition party and the nationally incumbent party are close in an effort to negatively influence the electoral performance of the incumbent party. To illustrate this dynamic we examine subnational data from 1995 to 2015 Turkish legislative elections and attacks organized by the Kurdish militants within the same time period. We also examine the impact of June 2015 legislative elections on militant attacks until the snap elections in November 2015. Our empirical examination shows that militants target localities where electoral support for the governing party and Kurdish opposition party is close. Moreover, increase in violence negatively influences the electoral performance of the governing party. However, it does not consistently have a significant influence on the opposition. The findings illustrate that militants strategically choose the location of their attacks based on electoral dynamics, and attacks can pose an electoral challenge to the governing party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We argue that the geographic distribution of power across different levels of government influences citizens' attachments to alternative collective groups. In federal states where authority is shared between the center and regions, individuals are more likely to have attachments to multiple groups. We present evidence for the impact of state structure on collective attachments using the case of supranational European identity. We show that in countries where state structure empowers sub-state governments, individuals manifest stronger attachments to a supranational European community than they do in unitary states. This study indicates that when we examine individuals' attachments to a collective group, the political-institutional context in which these individuals are embedded is an important factor to consider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to investigate flowering, pollen, and fruit set characteristics of locally registered pomegranate cultivars between two consecutive years. 'Dr. Ercan 35', 'Efenar 35', 'Kamilbey 35', and 'Tezeren 35' cultivars have been developed by cross-breeding programs. Open-, cross-, and self-pollination studies were performed with these cultivars using three trees in each replicate in the field. Number of anthers per flower, number of pollen grains per anther, viability, and germination tests were conducted in the laboratory. Fruit set ratio of self-pollinated combinations were lower than open-pollination. The fruit set ratio from self-pollination was obtained from 'Dr. Ercan' (60.3%), 'Efenar 35' (62.4%), 'Kamilbey 35' (50.5%), and 'Tezeren 35' (25.2%). The highest fruit set ratio (49.7%) was obtained from 'Kamilbey 35' × 'Dr. Ercan 35' combination. The highest number of characteristics was as follows: 'Tezeren 35' (402 anthers/hermaphrodite flowers), 'Kamilbey 35' (8550 pollen/anther, male flowers in the beginning of flowering), 'Efenar 35' (84.7% pollen viability, hermaphrodite flowers), 'Kamilbey 35' (71.2%, pollen germination, hermaphrodite flowers). In conclusion, at least one, two or more, pollinator cultivars are necessary for commercial plantations using with these recently released pomegranate cultivars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salmonellosis caused by non-typhodial Salmonella enterica serotypes is one of the most important food-borne diseases worldwide and biofilm structure formed by these pathogens provide a reservoir for food contamination and a source for infections. This study was performed in order to determine biofilm formation abilities of food borne Salmonella isolates on polystyrene and on air liquid interphase and their colony morphologies when grown on Congo Red Agar plates. 32 food-borne Salmonella strains isolated from retail chicken carcasses in Edirne province of Turkey and belonging to the Infantis, Enteritidis, Kentucky and Telaviv serotypes were used. The microtiter plate technique was used to determine biofilm formation abilities of the isolates on polystyrene surfaces by measuring the optical density (OD) values of the stained bacterial biofilms. The results showed that the strongest biofilm formation capacities of the isolates were observed at 22°C for 3 days of incubation. Although all isolates formed pellicle on the liquid-air interface at 22°C, only 13% of the isolates belonging to the Infantis, Kentucky and Enteritidis serovars formed pellicle at liquid-air interface at 37°C. Three different colony morphotypes (saw; smooth and white, bdar; brown, dry and rough, rdar; red, dry and rough) were determined on Congo Red Agar among the isolates. High biofilm formation abilities of the tested Salmonella isolates can lead to widespread of virulence and resistance properties, especially to medically important antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, via food chain. This situation constitutes an important concern for public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most empirical work on terrorism examines terrorist groups’ actions, that is, the volume or character of attacks, while relatively little work focuses on states’ counterterrorism actions. I address this gap with a focus on the electoral and partisan motivations of democratic states’ domestic counterterrorism actions. Do electoral concerns give incumbent governments incentives to increase the level of their counterterrorism activities? I show that elections are an important determinant of governments’ actions against domestic terrorism. However, governments’ ideological orientation is essential to understanding the relationship between elections and counterterrorism. Using data from Western European democracies between 1950 and 2004, I show that as elections approach, only Right-oriented governments increase the volume of their counterterrorism activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies the relationship between elections and domestic terrorism in democracies. Do approaching elections lead to an increase in the volume of terrorist activity? Extant theory suggests that terrorist groups strategically plan their attacks around elections. I argue that approaching elections are not always affiliated with an increase in the volume of terrorist activity. Electoral permissiveness, an important feature of democratic electoral systems, influences the extent to which periods close to elections are periods of heightened terrorist activity. Approaching elections lead to an increase in the volume of attacks in democracies with low electoral permissiveness but not in others. I test my argument with data from Western European democracies between 1950 and 2004. Using statistical models that include country fixed effects, I show that approaching elections are affiliated with an increase of the volume of attacks in democracies with the least permissive electoral systems, but not in democracies with permissive electoral systems. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of studies find that democracies experience more terrorism than non-democracies. However, surprisingly little terrorism research takes into account the variation among democracies in terms of their electoral institutions. Furthermore, despite much discussion of the differences in terrorist groups’ goals in the literature, little quantitative work distinguishes among groups with different goals, and none explores whether and how the influence of electoral institutions varies among groups with different goals. The argument in this article posits that electoral institutions influence the emergence of within-system groups, which seek policy changes, but do not influence the emergence of anti-system groups, which seek a complete overthrow of the existing regime and government. The study finds that within-system groups are significantly less likely to emerge in democracies that have a proportional representation system and higher levels of district magnitude, while neither of these factors affects the emergence of anti-system groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An increasing number of immigrants and rising unemployment rates are widely thought to contribute to the electoral success of extreme right parties in Western Europe. However, no study explicitly posits the causal mechanism that links the aggregate level factors of immigration and unemployment to the electoral success of extreme right parties, and systematically analyzes whether and how this mechanism works. Thus, the causal connection between immigration, unemployment and extreme right success remains at best ambiguous. I argue that the causal mechanism linking immigration and unemployment to extreme right electoral performance is the development of anti-immigrant attitudes at the individual level. In this paper, I examine how unemployment and immigration affect individuals' attitudes toward immigrants. This examination furthers our understanding of the actual dynamics of how unemployment and immigration influences the electoral success of extreme right parties. I find that greater unemployment rates increase the probability that an individual will have an anti-immigrant attitude only when immigration is already at a high level. Similarly, increasing immigration alone does not always increase the probability that an individual will have an anti-immigrant attitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article illustrates how voting rules used to pass a piece of legislation and the structure of the legislation, in terms of whether or not it has single or multiple issue dimensions, influence the frequency and the purpose of position changes in legislative negotiations. Through analysis of data on a set of legislative proposals negotiated in the European Union, I show that position changes are less common under unanimity rule than under majority rule. More importantly, I argue and show that when the negotiated legislation is multidimensional (i.e., contains multiple issues) and the voting rule is unanimity, position changing is a lucrative strategy for legislators. Multidimensional legislation creates opportunities for logrolling, and legislators' veto power under the unanimity rule enables them to exploit these opportunities. Accordingly, under this scenario, legislators often engage in what I call a within-legislation logroll and secure favorable legislative outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key finding in the terrorism literature is that dictatorships experience less terrorism than democracies. However, we have few explanations for why some dictatorships experience substantial threats from terrorism while others do not. A growing body of work on authoritarian politics focuses on political institutions in these regimes to explain a broad range of political outcomes. Building on this literature, we argue that opposition political party activity increases the collective action capacity of regime opponents and that elected legislatures can channel this mobilized capacity into support for the government. However, when active opposition parties operate in the absence of legislatures, political opponents increasingly turn to terrorism. We find evidence that terrorist groups are most likely to emerge in dictatorships with opposition political parties but no elected legislature. These regimes also experience the highest volume of subsequent attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article empirically illustrates the value of coalition formation in legislative bargaining. I argue that legislators' potential to form powerful coalitions, their coalition potential, is essential to their ability to obtain preferred policy outcomes. Using data on the European Union's legislative process, I show that coalition potential significantly increases legislators' success. Moreover, the value of coalition potential depends on the voting rules used to pass legislation. For example, under the unanimity voting rule, the importance of coalition potential is insignificant because of the veto power held by each legislator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the factors that help EU member states to secure favourable bargaining outcomes? Although existing research highlights the importance of the member states' 'political power', scholars tend to equate this with their voting power. In this paper, I argue that proposal-making power associated with the EU presidency helps the member states to obtain preferable negotiation outcomes. Analysis of the cross-state allocation of the EU budget from 1977-2003 shows that holding the EU presidency during the time of allocation decisions brings financial benefits to individual member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does anti-Muslim rhetoric by Western politicians breed radical attitudes among European Muslims? This article explores this question by conducting an experimental study in Bosnia – a European democracy, where, unlike the rest of Europe, Muslims are neither immigrants nor socio-economically disadvantaged. This helps clearly identify the radicalization potential of Western rhetoric alone, absent contextual factors such as social inferiority. Experimental evidence with Bosnian Muslims from five surveys (with a total of 2,608 participants) suggests that rhetorical attacks on Islam by Western politicians do not strengthen individuals' Muslim identity, cause higher levels of animosity toward the West or lead to condoning the use of violence. The study also finds that pro-Muslim rhetoric, while increasing positive views of the West, does not affect individuals' strength of Muslim identity or their radical sympathies. These results have important implications for the sources of radicalization and efforts to curb radical tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The dental pulp is the part in the center of a tooth made up of living connective tissue and cells called odontoblasts. The vitality of the dentin structure, both during health and after injury, depends on pulp cell activity and the signaling processes that regulate the cell's behavior. Dental pulp tissue has condensed stem cell activity. Dental pulp stem cells are multipotent stem cells that have the potential to differentiate into a variety of cell types. Several publications have stressed the importance of the expression of pluripotentiality associated markers: the transcription factors Nanog, Sox2, Oct3/4, SSEA4, CD13, Stro1 are indispensable for the stem cells to divide indefinitely without affecting their differentiation potential (self renewal) capacity. Progesterone is a steroid hormone leading to menstrual cycle and gestation. There is a widespread rumor among people that pregnancy causes toothy loss. Method: So, progesterone was applied in different concentrations on human dental pulp cells in cell culture. Cell viability assay was applied 24th hour later with trypan blue. RNA isolation, cDNA synthesis and Real Time PCR analysis were applied on selected transcription factors (Nanog and Oct4 (POU5F1) genes) which have role on steamness of stem cells. Gene expression analyses results were correlated with the cell viability assay results. Results: Cell viability assay results were 80% viable in control, 82% viable in 7 ml progesterone application, 81% viable in 14 ml progesterone application, 83% viable in 21 ml progesterone application. Due to our findings, progesterone in different concentrations did not chance the cell viability in dental pulpa cells. On gene expression analyses, preliminary results supported that high concentrations of progesterone enhance the gene expressions of steamness genes (Nanog, and Oct4) in dental pulp cells. Conclusions: So, progesterone did not change cell viability in high concentrations. We assume that progesterone did not affect apopitotic pathways on dental pulp cells. On the other hand, high gene expressions of Nanog, and Oct4 in high doses of progesterone represent the importance of progesterone hormone in dental pulp cells including stem cells maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burrill. is the most important disease affecting quince cultivation and breeding of resistant varieties is seen as the key solution. As a result of hybridizations, 223 hybrids were obtained from 9 different combinations and susceptibility indexes (SI) of these hybrids were determined by artificial inoculations. Among the tested seven parental cultivars, Ege 25, Altın 35, Zeybek 35, and Ayva B-35 were found fire blight resistant while others were detected as moderately susceptible. SI of hybrids were changed between 14.77 and 52.94% regardless of hybrid combinations and 77.60% of obtained hybrids took place in resistant (10.1–30%) group. Reciprocal combinations showed that using resistant cultivar as a male parent was more effective than using maternal parent for transferring resistance. Heterosis (Ht) rates between combinations were found significant (p < .0004), while heterobeltiosis (Hbt) were not (p < .0623). Ht and Hbt ranged between −2.82–13.54 and −4.20–6.72 in populations, respectively. The maximum and significant heterotic effect was observed in Quince A × Ayva B-35 and its’ reciprocal combination. In moderately susceptible × resistance combination, 83.33% of F1 were determined to be resistant. On the other hand, hybrids from resistance × resistance combination were distributed in three groups as resistant, moderately susceptible and susceptible. According to these results, it could be said that (1) fire blight resistance genes in quince are recessive, (2) use of resistant varieties as pollinators is more successful in transferring resistance to hybrids, (3) open pollination treatment is an essential and easy way in terms of obtaining resistant hybrids if the orchard has resistant pollinator, and (4) heterobeltiosis for fire blight resistance is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]