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Article A Factory in a Time of Turmoil: The Establishment and Engineering of the Büyükdere Match Factory in 1930s Istanbul(MDPI, 2025) Tunc, Gokhan; Tunc, Tanfer EminThe Republic of Turkey established its first match factory in Sinop in 1929 but had to relocate it even before it was in operation due to severe structural damage caused by ground settlement. In July 1930, through his US-based firm the American-Turkish Investment Corporation (ATIC), the Swedish "Match King" Ivar Kreuger signed a contract with the Republic of Turkey to build and operate a factory in B & uuml;y & uuml;kdere, Istanbul. By 1930, Kreuger had already established a match production monopoly in nearly every country in Europe and that year created a similar financial system for Turkey, gaining control of match production for 25 years. This article explains the events surrounding the establishment of his modern production facility in Turkey, with a particular focus on its engineering aspects. It details the strategically chosen location, the engineering solutions for the factory's construction, its production lines, and what the country gained and lost from it. In order to determine the establishment and production processes of the facility, the authors examined domestic and foreign archival documents, firsthand news reports from the period, articles and theses, and all other available documents. After the contract was terminated by both parties, the Turkish government and ATIC, in May 1943, the factory continued its production and storage activities until May 1989. At that point, the factory and all its equipment were integrated into another existing facility in the & Idot;neg & ouml;l district of Bursa province. Almost all the buildings of the B & uuml;y & uuml;kdere Match Factory were demolished, and the land was repurposed for a 450-bed regional hospital in 2012. In short, this article deploys the B & uuml;y & uuml;kdere Match Factory as a case study to examine what Turkey gained and lost from the establishment and production processes of a modern industrial factory, enabled by US-Turkish collaboration, and equipped with the most advanced manufacturing and engineering technologies of the time.Article Recognition and Misclassification Patterns of Basic Emotional Facial Expressions: An Eye-Tracking Study in Young Healthy Adults(MDPI, 2025) Alkan, NeşeAccurate recognition of basic facial emotions is well documented, yet the mechanisms of misclassification and their relation to gaze allocation remain under-reported. The present study utilized a within-subjects eye-tracking design to examine both accurate and inaccurate recognition of five basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and sadness) in healthy young adults. Fifty participants (twenty-four women) completed a forced-choice categorization task with 10 stimuli (female/male poser x emotion). A remote eye tracker (60 Hz) recorded fixations mapped to eyes, nose, and mouth areas of interest (AOIs). The analyses combined accuracy and decision-time statistics with heatmap comparisons of misclassified versus accurate trials within the same image. Overall accuracy was 87.8% (439/500). Misclassification patterns depended on the target emotion, but not on participant gender. Fear male was most often misclassified (typically as disgust), and sadness female was frequently labeled as fear or disgust; disgust was the most incorrectly attributed response. For accurate trials, decision time showed main effects of emotion (p < 0.001) and participant gender (p = 0.033): happiness was categorized fastest and anger slowest, and women responded faster overall, with particularly fast response times for sadness. The AOI results revealed strong main effects and an AOI x emotion interaction (p < 0.001): eyes received the most fixations, but fear drew relatively more mouth sampling and sadness more nose sampling. Crucially, heatmaps showed an upper-face bias (eye AOI) in inaccurate trials, whereas accurate trials retained eye sampling and added nose and mouth AOI coverage, which aligned with diagnostic cues. These findings indicate that the scanpath strategy, in addition to information availability, underpins success and failure in basic-emotion recognition, with implications for theory, targeted training, and affective technologies.Article Citation - WoS: 1Citation - Scopus: 1Latent Psychological Pathways in Thermal Comfort Perception: The Mediating Role of Cognitive Uncertainty on Depression and Vigour(MDPI, 2025) Ozbey, Mehmet Furkan; Turhan, Cihan; Alkan, Nese; Akkurt, Gulden GokcenThermal comfort is the condition of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment, and it is assessed through subjective evaluation, according to the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers. While research has traditionally emphasised physical factors, growing evidence highlights the role of the state of mind in shaping thermal perception. In a prior Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis, six mood subscales-Anger, Confusion, Vigour, Tension, Depression, and Fatigue-were examined for how they affect the absolute difference between actual and predicted thermal sensation. Depression and vigour were found to be the most influential, while confusion appeared least impactful. However, to accurately assess the role of confusion, it is necessary to consider its potential interactions with other mood subscales. To this end, a mediation analysis was conducted using Hayes' PROCESS tool. The mediation analyses revealed that confusion partially mediated depression's effect in males and vigour's effect in females. These results suggest that, despite a weak direct impact, confusion critically influences thermal perception by altering the effects of key mood states. Accounting for the indirect effects of mood states may lead to more accurate predictions of human sensory experiences and improve the design of occupant-centred environments.Article Effects of Pomegranate Seed Oil on Lower Extremity Ischemia-Reperfusion Damage: Insights into Oxidative Stress, Inflammation, and Cell Death(MDPI, 2025) Bozok, Ummu Gulsen; Ergorun, Aydan Iremnur; Kucuk, Aysegul; Yigman, Zeynep; Dursun, Ali Dogan; Arslan, MustafaAim: This study sought to clarify the therapeutic benefits and mechanisms of action of pomegranate seed oil (PSO) in instances of ischemia–reperfusion (IR) damage in the lower extremities. Materials and Methods: The sample size was determined, then 32 rats were randomly allocated to four groups: Control (C), ischemia–reperfusion (IR), low-dose PSO (IR + LD, 0.15 mL/kg), and high-dose PSO (IR + HD, 0.30 mL/kg). The ischemia model in the IR group was established by occluding the infrarenal aorta for 120 min. Prior to reperfusion, PSO was delivered to the IR + LD and IR + HD groups at doses of 0.15 mL/kg and 0.30 mL/kg, respectively, followed by a 120 min reperfusion period. Subsequently, blood and tissue specimens were obtained. Statistical investigation was executed utilizing Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.0 (SPSS, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Results: Biochemical tests revealed significant variations in total antioxidant level (TAS), total oxidant level (TOS), and the oxidative stress index (OSI) across the groups (p < 0.0001). The IR group had elevated TOS and OSI levels, whereas PSO therapy resulted in a reduction in these values (p < 0.05). As opposed to the IR group, TASs were higher in the PSO-treated groups. Histopathological analysis demonstrated muscle fiber degeneration, interstitial edema, and the infiltration of cells associated with inflammation in the IR group, with analogous results noted in the PSO treatment groups. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the expressions of Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNF-α), Nuclear Factor kappa B (NF-κB), cytochrome C (CYT C), and caspase 3 (CASP3) were elevated in the IR group, while PSO treatment diminished these markers and attenuated inflammation and apoptosis (p < 0.05). The findings demonstrate that PSO has a dose-dependent impact on IR injury. Discussion: This research indicates that PSO has significant protective benefits against IR injury in the lower extremities. PSO mitigated tissue damage and maintained mitochondrial integrity by addressing oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptotic pathways. Particularly, high-dose PSO yielded more substantial enhancements in these processes and exhibited outcomes most comparable to the control group in biochemical, histological, and immunohistochemical investigations. These findings underscore the potential of PSO as an efficacious natural treatment agent for IR injury. Nevertheless, additional research is required to articulate this definitively.Article Citation - WoS: 8Citation - Scopus: 12Protective Effects of BPC 157 on Liver, Kidney, and Lung Distant Organ Damagein Rats with Experimental Lower-Extremity Ischemia–Reperfusion Injury(MDPI, 2025) Demirtas, Hueseyin; Ozer, Abdullah; Yildirim, Alperen Kutay; Dursun, Ali Dogan; Sezen, Saban Cem; Arslan, MustafaBackground and Objectives: Ischemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury can affect multiple distant organs following I/R in the lower extremities. BPC-157’s anti-inflammatory and free radical-neutralizing properties suggest its potential in mitigating ischemia–reperfusion damage. This study evaluates the protective effects of BPC-157 on remote organ damage, including the kidneys, liver, and lungs, in a rat model of skeletal muscle I/R injury. Materials and Methods: A total of 24 male Wistar albino rats were randomly divided into four groups: sham (S), BPC-157(B), lower extremity I/R(IR) and lower extremity I/R+BPC-157(I/RB). Some 45 min of ischemia of lower extremity was followed by 2 h of reperfusion of limbs. BPC-157 was applied to groups B and I/RB at the beginning of the procedure. After 2 h of reperfusion, liver, kidney and lung tissues were harvested for biochemical and histopathological analyses. Results: In the histopathological examination, vascular and glomerular vacuolization, tubular dilation, hyaline casts, and tubular cell shedding in renal tissue were significantly lower in the I/RB group compared to other groups. Lung tissue showed reduced interstitial edema, alveolar congestion, and total damage scores in the I/RB group. Similarly, in liver tissue, sinusoidal dilation, necrotic cells, and mononuclear cell infiltration were significantly lower in the I/RB group. Additionally, the evaluation of TAS, TOS, OSI, and PON-1 revealed a statistically significant increase in antioxidant activity in the liver, lung, and kidney tissues of the I/RB group. Conclusions: The findings of this study demonstrate that BPC-157 exerts a significant protective effect against distant organ damage in the liver, kidneys, and lungs following lower extremity ischemia–reperfusion injury in rats.Article Calcium Phosphate Honeycomb Scaffolds With Tailored Microporous Walls Using Phase Separation-Assisted Digital Light Processing(MDPI, 2025) Kim, Gyu-Nam; Park, Jae-Hyung; Song, Jae-Uk; Koh, Young-Hag; Park, JongeeThe present study reports on the manufacturing of biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP) honeycomb scaffolds with tailored microporous walls using phase separation-assisted digital light processing (PS-DLP). To create micropores in BCP walls, camphene was used as the pore-forming agent for preparing BCP suspensions, since it could be completely dissolved in photopolymerizable monomers composed of triethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) and polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) and then undergo phase separation when placed at 5 degrees C. Therefore, solid camphene crystals could be formed in phase-separated BCP layers and then readily removed via sublimation after the photopolymerization of monomer networks embedding BCP particles by DLP. This approach allowed for tight control over the microporosity of BCP walls by adjusting the camphene content. As the camphene content increased from 40 to 60 vol%, the microporosity increased from similar to 38 to similar to 59 vol%. Consequently, the overall porosity of dual-scale porosity scaffolds increased from similar to 51 to similar to 67 vol%, while their compressive strength decreased from similar to 70.4 to similar to 13.7 MPa. The mass transport ability increased remarkably with an increase in microporosity.Article Comparative Analysis of Vibration Axis Effects on Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Machining of Inconel 718(MDPI, 2026) Namlu, Ramazan Hakki; Kilic, Zekai MuratInconel 718 is widely utilized in critical engineering sectors, particularly aerospace, owing to its exceptional creep resistance, corrosion resistance, and retention of mechanical strength at elevated temperatures. However, its high hardness, low thermal conductivity, and strong work-hardening tendency make it extremely difficult to machine using conventional techniques. Ultrasonic Vibration-Assisted Machining (UVAM) has emerged as an effective strategy to overcome these limitations by superimposing high-frequency, low-amplitude vibrations onto the cutting process. Depending on the vibration direction, UVAM can significantly change chip formation, tool-workpiece interaction, and surface integrity. In this study, the influence of three UVAM modes-longitudinal (Z-UVAM), feed-directional (X-UVAM), and multi-axial (XZ-UVAM)-on the machining behavior of Inconel 718 was systematically investigated. The findings reveal that XZ-UVAM provides the most advantageous outcomes, primarily due to its intermittent cutting mechanism. Compared with Conventional Machining (CM), XZ-UVAM reduced cutting forces by up to 43% and areal surface roughness by 37%, while generating surfaces with more uniform topographies and smaller peak-to-valley variations. Furthermore, UVAM enhanced subsurface microhardness as a result of the surface hammering effect, which may improve fatigue performance. XZ-UVAM also effectively minimized burr formation, demonstrating its potential for high-quality, sustainable, and efficient machining of Inconel 718.Article A Gradient Enhanced Efficient Global Optimization-Driven Aerodynamic Shape Optimization Framework(MDPI, 2025) Senol, Niyazi; Akay, Hasan U.; Yigit, SahinThe aerodynamic optimization of airfoil shapes remains a critical research area for enhancing aircraft performance under various flight conditions. In this study, the RAE 2822 airfoil was selected as a benchmark case to investigate and compare the effectiveness of surrogate-based methods under an Efficient Global Optimization (EGO) framework and an adjoint-based approach in both single-point and multi-point optimization settings. Prior to optimization, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was validated against experimental data to ensure accuracy. For the surrogate-based methods, Kriging (KRG), Kriging with Partial Least Squares (KPLS), Gradient-Enhanced Kriging (GEK), and Gradient-Enhanced Kriging with Partial Least Squares (GEKPLS) were employed. In the single-point optimization, the GEK method achieved the highest drag reduction, outperforming other approaches, while in the multi-point case, GEKPLS provided the best overall improvement. Detailed comparisons were made against existing literature results, with the proposed methods showing competitive and superior performance, particularly in viscous, transonic conditions. The results underline the importance of incorporating gradient information into surrogate models for achieving high-fidelity aerodynamic optimizations. The study demonstrates that surrogate-based methods, especially those enriched with gradient information, can effectively match or exceed the performance of gradient-based adjoint methods within reasonable computational costs.Article Effect of Aluminizing on the Oxidation of Inconel 718 and Inconel 738LC Superalloys at 925-1050 °C(MDPI, 2025) Telbakiroglu, Yusuf Burak; Konca, ErkanThis study was undertaken to investigate the effect of aluminizing on the oxidation of Inconel 718 and Inconel 738LC superalloys. Bare and high-activity chemical vapor deposition (CVD) aluminized Inconel 718 and Inconel 738LC samples were oxidized in air at 925, 1000, and 1050 degrees C for 200 h. Detailed cross-sectional examinations, elemental analyses, mass change measurements, and X-ray diffraction studies were performed. It was observed that the oxidation resistances of both alloys were significantly improved by the Al2O3 scale formed on the NiAl layer that was created on the surfaces of the samples during aluminizing. The beneficial effect of aluminizing was found to be more evident in the case of Inconel 738LC alloy samples which showed lower oxidation rates at all test temperatures. The results have been discussed on the basis of the differences in aluminum contents of the alloys and their effects on diffusion.