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Article Citation - WoS: 6Citation - Scopus: 8Food Safety Awareness, Changes in Food Purchasing Behaviour and Attitudes Towards Food Waste During Covid-19 in Türkiye(Mdpi, 2023) Erol, Irfan; Mutus, Begum; Ayaz, Naim Deniz; Stowell, Julian D.; Siriken, Belgin(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic brought the key issues of food security, food safety, and food waste into sharp focus. Turkiye is in the enviable position of being among the top ten agricultural economies worldwide, with a wide diversity of food production. This survey was undertaken in order to gain insights into consumer behaviour and attitudes in Turkiye with respect to these issues. The objective was to highlight strengths and weaknesses, identify areas for improvement, and present strategies for the future. (2) Methods: This survey was carried out between April and May 2022 in 12 provinces throughout Turkiye. Face-to-face interviews were performed with 2400 participants representing a cross-section of ages, educational attainment, and socio-economic categories. The findings were evaluated statistically. (3) Results: The results provide an insight into attitudes and behaviours, both pre-COVID-19 and during the pandemic. In several ways, the pandemic enhanced knowledge and improved behaviour, leading to improvements in diet and reductions in food waste. However, worrying concerns about food safety persist. Specific attention has been given to understanding patterns of bread consumption, particularly in consideration of waste. (4) Conclusions: It is hoped that the results of this survey will increase dialogue between the components of the food sector, encourage education initiatives, and contribute to improving food safety and security and reducing food waste in Turkiye and beyond.Article Citation - WoS: 8Citation - Scopus: 9Refugees' Opinions About Healthcare Services: a Case of Turkey(Mdpi, 2021) Tengilimoglu, Dilaver; Zekioglu, Aysu; Budak, Fatih; Eris, Hilseyin; Younis, MustafaBackground: Migration is one of the most important social events in human history. In recent years, Turkey hosted a high number of asylum seekers and refugees, primarily because of continuing wars and radical social changes in the Middle East. Methods: Using a random sampling method, Syrian refugees aged 18 and over, who can communicate in Turkish, were reached via personal contact and a total of 714 refugees participated in the study voluntarily. Results: Turkey has mounted with some success and to point out that even though participating refugees in both provinces are young and healthy, almost 50% have bad or worse health status, 61% have chronic diseases, and 55% need regular medication. Participating refugees living in Sanliurfa stated that 'Hospitals are very clean and tidy.' (3.80 +/- 0.80). The answers given to the following statements had the highest mean for the participating refugees living in Kilis; 'Hospitals are clean and tidy.' (3.22 +/- 1.25). Conclusion: Due to financial and human resource deficiencies, there are problems in providing preventive and therapeutic health services, especially to refugees living outside the refugee camps in bad conditions. It is important that refugees are encouraged to apply to family health and community health centers in this context.Article Citation - WoS: 9Citation - Scopus: 9Effect of Co-Existing Ions on Salinity Gradient Power Generation by Reverse Electrodialysis Using Different Ion Exchange Membrane Pairs(Mdpi, 2022) Kaya, Tugce Zeynep; Altiok, Esra; Guler, Enver; Kabay, NalanThis study investigates the influence of co-existing ions on the salinity gradient power generation performance of the reverse electrodialysis (RED) using three different commercial ion exchange membrane pairs. The feed solutions, including the mixture of two different salts, were prepared with 90 wt.% of NaCl and 10 wt.% of LiCl, KCl, CaCl2, MgCl2 or Na2SO4 by keeping the salt ratio between high concentrate solution and low concentrate solution constant as 1:30 (g/g) at various flow velocities (50, 125 and 200 mL/min). It was observed that the divalent ions exhibited a negative impact on the performance of the RED system due to their high valence and low ionic mobility depending on their high hydrated radius and low diffusion coefficients compared to those of the monovalent ions. On the other hand, the effect of the monovalent ions differed according to the properties of ion exchange membranes used in the RED stack. When the power generation performances of ion exchange membrane pairs employed in the RED stack were compared, it was considered that Neosepta AMX and CMX membranes provided the highest power density due to their low membrane thicknesses, low electrical resistances, and relatively high ion exchange capacities compared to other two commercial ion exchange membrane pairs.Article Citation - WoS: 5Citation - Scopus: 7The Problems Experienced by Employees With Chronic Disease During the Covid-19 Pandemic(Mdpi, 2022) Tengilimoglu, Dilaver; Tengilimoğlu, Dilaver; Goenuellue, Ugur; Isik, Oguz; Tosun, Nurperihan; Zekioglu, Aysu; Tengilimoglu, Onur; Younis, Mustafa; Tengilimoğlu, Dilaver; Business; BusinessChronic diseases served as a silent global epidemic before the pandemic, and individuals living with chronic disease now form one of the groups most affected by COVID-19. This study aims to determine the problems that employees with chronic disease face during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the study, data were collected from 952 individuals who live with chronic disease in Turkey. Of these, 76.6% of respondents worked for the public sector, a large majority of whom (67.7%) have worked full time during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was found that the COVID-19 fear level of employees living with chronic disease was higher than moderate (21.061 +/- 7.607). When the variables affecting the COVID-19 fear level are listed in order of relative significance, eating problems, residing in the Mediterranean region, having asthma, and working as a female employee made the greatest impact, respectively. Necessary conditions of work should be provided to those living with chronic disease who could adapt themselves to working flexibly or working from home, so that they would not feel isolated from business life. This group should be provided with essential protective equipment, their working conditions must be reviewed and vaccination priority could be given to them.Article Citation - WoS: 3Citation - Scopus: 3Shared 6mer Peptides of Human and Omicron (21k and 21l) at Sars-Cov Mutation Sites(Mdpi, 2022) Adiguzel, Yekbun; Shoenfeld, YehudaWe investigated the short sequences involving Omicron 21K and Omicron 21L variants to reveal any possible molecular mimicry-associated autoimmunity risks and changes in those. We first identified common 6mers of the viral and human protein sequences present for both the mutant (Omicron) and nonmutant (SARS-CoV-2) versions of the same viral sequence and then predicted the binding affinities of those sequences to the HLA supertype representatives. We evaluated change in the potential autoimmunity risk, through comparative assessment of the nonmutant and mutant viral sequences and their similar human peptides with common 6mers and affinities to the same HLA allele. This change is the lost and the new, or de novo, autoimmunity risk, associated with the mutations in the Omicron 21K and Omicron 21L variants. Accordingly, e.g., the affinity of virus-similar sequences of the Ig heavy chain junction regions shifted from the HLA-B*15:01 to the HLA-A*01:01 allele at the mutant sequences. Additionally, peptides of different human proteins sharing 6mers with SARS-CoV-2 proteins at the mutation sites of interest and with affinities to the HLA-B*07:02 allele, such as the respective SARS-CoV-2 sequences, were lost. Among all, any possible molecular mimicry-associated novel risk appeared to be prominent in HLA-A*24:02 and HLA-B*27:05 serotypes upon infection with Omicron 21L. Associated disease, pathway, and tissue expression data supported possible new risks for the HLA-B*27:05 and HLA-A*01:01 serotypes, while the risks for the HLA-B*07:02 serotypes could have been lost or diminished, and those for the HLA-A*03:01 serotypes could have been retained, for the individuals infected with Omicron variants under study. These are likely to affect the complications related to cross-reactions influencing the relevant HLA serotypes upon infection with Omicron 21K and Omicron 21L.Article Citation - WoS: 4Citation - Scopus: 6A Conceptual Design of Smart Management System for Flooding Disaster(Mdpi, 2021) Ibrahim, Thaer; Mishra, AlokDisasters pose a real threat to the lives and property of citizens; therefore, it is necessary to reduce their impact to the minimum possible. In order to achieve this goal, a framework for enhancing the current disaster management system was proposed, called the smart disaster management system. The smart aspect of this system is due to the application of the principles of information and communication technology, especially the Internet of Things. All participants and activities of the proposed system were clarified by preparing a conceptual design by using The Unified Modeling Language diagrams. This effort was made to overcome the lack of citizens' readiness towards the use of information and communication technology as well as increase their readiness towards disasters. This study aims to develop conceptual design that can facilitate in development of smart management system for flooding disaster. This will assist in the design process of the Internet of Things systems in this regard.Article Citation - WoS: 35Citation - Scopus: 61Cybersecurity Enterprises Policies: a Comparative Study(Mdpi, 2022) Mishra, Alok; Alzoubi, Yehia Ibrahim; Gill, Asif Qumer; Anwar, Memoona JaveriaCybersecurity is a critical issue that must be prioritized not just by enterprises of all kinds, but also by national security. To safeguard an organization's cyberenvironments, information, and communication technologies, many enterprises are investing substantially in cybersecurity these days. One part of the cyberdefense mechanism is building an enterprises' security policies library, for consistent implementation of security controls. Significant and common cybersecurity policies of various enterprises are compared and explored in this study to provide robust and comprehensive cybersecurity knowledge that can be used in various enterprises. Several significant common security policies were identified and discussed in this comprehensive study. This study identified 10 common cybersecurity policy aspects in five enterprises: healthcare, finance, education, aviation, and e-commerce. We aimed to build a strong infrastructure in each business, and investigate the security laws and policies that apply to all businesses in each sector. Furthermore, the findings of this study reveal that the importance of cybersecurity requirements differ across multiple organizations. The choice and applicability of cybersecurity policies are determined by the type of information under control and the security requirements of organizations in relation to these policies.Article Citation - WoS: 5Citation - Scopus: 7Clinical Characteristics of Patients With Intraocular Lens Calcification After Pars Plana Vitrectomy(Mdpi, 2023) Bopp, Silvia; Ozdemir, Huseyin Baran; Aktas, Zeynep; Khoramnia, Ramin; Yildirim, Timur M.; Schickhardt, Sonja; Ozdek, SengulAim: To determine the clinical risk factors that may increase the occurrence of intraocular lens (IOL) calcification in patients who had undergone pars plana vitrectomy (PPV). Methods: The medical records of 14 patients who underwent IOL explantation due to clinically significant IOL opacification after PPV were reviewed. The date of primary cataract surgery, technique and implanted IOL characteristics; the time, cause and technique of PPV; tamponade used; additional surgeries; the time of IOL calcification and explantation; and IOL explantation technique were investigated. Results: PPV had been performed as a combined procedure with cataract surgery in eight eyes and solely in six pseudophakic eyes. The IOL material was hydrophilic in six eyes, hydrophilic with a hydrophobic surface in seven eyes and undetermined in one eye. The endotamponades used during primary PPV were C2F6 in eight eyes, C3F8 in one eye, air in two eyes and silicone oil in three eyes. Two of three eyes underwent subsequent silicone oil removal and gas tamponade exchange. Gas in the anterior chamber was detected in six eyes after PPV or silicone oil removal. The mean interval between PPV and IOL opacification was 20.5 +/- 18.6 months. The mean BCVA in logMAR was 0.43 +/- 0.42 after PPV, which significantly decreased to 0.67 +/- 0.68 before IOL explantation for IOL opacification (p = 0.007) and increased to 0.48 +/- 0.59 after the IOL exchange (p = 0.015). Conclusions: PPV with endotamponades in pseudophakic eyes, particularly gas, seems to increase the risk for secondary IOL calcification, especially in hydrophilic IOLs. IOL exchange seems to solve this problem when clinically significant vision loss occurs.Article Citation - WoS: 21Citation - Scopus: 35Deep Learning-Based Computer-Aided Diagnosis (cad): Applications for Medical Image Datasets(Mdpi, 2022) Kadhim, Yezi Ali; Khan, Muhammad Umer; Mishra, AlokComputer-aided diagnosis (CAD) has proved to be an effective and accurate method for diagnostic prediction over the years. This article focuses on the development of an automated CAD system with the intent to perform diagnosis as accurately as possible. Deep learning methods have been able to produce impressive results on medical image datasets. This study employs deep learning methods in conjunction with meta-heuristic algorithms and supervised machine-learning algorithms to perform an accurate diagnosis. Pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) or auto-encoder are used for feature extraction, whereas feature selection is performed using an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm. Ant colony optimization helps to search for the best optimal features while reducing the amount of data. Lastly, diagnosis prediction (classification) is achieved using learnable classifiers. The novel framework for the extraction and selection of features is based on deep learning, auto-encoder, and ACO. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated using two medical image datasets: chest X-ray (CXR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the prediction of the existence of COVID-19 and brain tumors. Accuracy is used as the main measure to compare the performance of the proposed approach with existing state-of-the-art methods. The proposed system achieves an average accuracy of 99.61% and 99.18%, outperforming all other methods in diagnosing the presence of COVID-19 and brain tumors, respectively. Based on the achieved results, it can be claimed that physicians or radiologists can confidently utilize the proposed approach for diagnosing COVID-19 patients and patients with specific brain tumors.Review Citation - WoS: 61Citation - Scopus: 72Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Surface Treatment of Polymers and Influence on Cell Cultivation(Mdpi, 2021) Sasmazel, Hilal Turkoglu; Alazzawi, Marwa; Alsahib, Nabeel Kadim AbidAtmospheric plasma treatment is an effective and economical surface treatment technique. The main advantage of this technique is that the bulk properties of the material remain unchanged while the surface properties and biocompatibility are enhanced. Polymers are used in many biomedical applications; such as implants, because of their variable bulk properties. On the other hand, their surface properties are inadequate which demands certain surface treatments including atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. In biomedical applications, surface treatment is important to promote good cell adhesion, proliferation, and growth. This article aim is to give an overview of different atmospheric pressure plasma treatments of polymer surface, and their influence on cell-material interaction with different cell lines.
