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Article Citation - WoS: 25Citation - Scopus: 34Tobset: a New Tobacco Crop and Weeds Image Dataset and Its Utilization for Vision-Based Spraying by Agricultural Robots(Mdpi, 2022) Alam, Muhammad Shahab; Khan, Muhammad Umer; Alam, Mansoor; Tufail, Muhammad; Güneş, Ahmet; Khan, Muhammad Umer; Gunes, Ahmet; Salah, Bashir; Khan, Muhammad Tahir; Khan, Muhammad Umer; Güneş, Ahmet; Mechatronics Engineering; Department of Mechatronics Engineering; Mechatronics Engineering; Department of Mechatronics EngineeringSelective agrochemical spraying is a highly intricate task in precision agriculture. It requires spraying equipment to distinguish between crop (plants) and weeds and perform spray operations in real-time accordingly. The study presented in this paper entails the development of two convolutional neural networks (CNNs)-based vision frameworks, i.e., Faster R-CNN and YOLOv5, for the detection and classification of tobacco crops/weeds in real time. An essential requirement for CNN is to pre-train it well on a large dataset to distinguish crops from weeds, lately the same trained network can be utilized in real fields. We present an open access image dataset (TobSet) of tobacco plants and weeds acquired from local fields at different growth stages and varying lighting conditions. The TobSet comprises 7000 images of tobacco plants and 1000 images of weeds and bare soil, taken manually with digital cameras periodically over two months. Both vision frameworks are trained and then tested using this dataset. The Faster R-CNN-based vision framework manifested supremacy over the YOLOv5-based vision framework in terms of accuracy and robustness, whereas the YOLOv5-based vision framework demonstrated faster inference. Experimental evaluation of the system is performed in tobacco fields via a four-wheeled mobile robot sprayer controlled using a computer equipped with NVIDIA GTX 1650 GPU. The results demonstrate that Faster R-CNN and YOLOv5-based vision systems can analyze plants at 10 and 16 frames per second (fps) with a classification accuracy of 98% and 94%, respectively. Moreover, the precise smart application of pesticides with the proposed system offered a 52% reduction in pesticide usage by spotting the targets only, i.e., tobacco plants.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: 9Citation - Scopus: 20Business Intelligence Strategies, Best Practices, and Latest Trends: Analysis of Scientometric Data From 2003 To 2023 Using Machine Learning(Mdpi, 2023) Gurcan, Fatih; Ayaz, Ahmet; Dalveren, Gonca Gokce Menekse; Derawi, MohammadThe widespread use of business intelligence products, services, and applications piques the interest of researchers in this field. The interest of researchers in business intelligence increases the number of studies significantly. Identifying domain-specific research patterns and trends is thus a significant research problem. This study employs a topic modeling approach to analyze domain-specific articles in order to identify research patterns and trends in the business intelligence field over the last 20 years. As a result, 36 topics were discovered that reflect the field's research landscape and trends. Topics such as "Organizational Capability", "AI Applications", "Data Mining", "Big Data Analytics", and "Visualization" have recently gained popularity. A systematic taxonomic map was also created, revealing the research background and BI perspectives based on the topics. This study may be useful to researchers and practitioners interested in learning about the most recent developments in the field. Topics generated by topic modeling can also be used to identify gaps in current research or potential future research directions.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: 13Citation - Scopus: 14Core/Shell Glycine-Polyvinyl Alcohol/Polycaprolactone Nanofibrous Membrane Intended for Guided Bone Regeneration: Development and Characterization(Mdpi, 2021) Alazzawi, Marwa; Alsahib, Nabeel Kadim Abid; Sasmazel, Hilal TurkogluGlycine (Gly), which is the simplest amino acid, induces the inflammation response and enhances bone mass density, and particularly its beta polymorph has superior mechanical and piezoelectric properties. Therefore, electrospinning of Gly with any polymer, including polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), has a great potential in biomedical applications, such as guided bone regeneration (GBR) application. However, their application is limited due to a fast degradation rate and undesirable mechanical and physical properties. Therefore, encapsulation of Gly and PVA fiber within a poly(epsilon-caprolactone) (PCL) shell provides a slower degradation rate and improves the mechanical, chemical, and physical properties. A membrane intended for GBR application is a barrier membrane used to guide alveolar bone regeneration by preventing fast-proliferating cells from growing into the bone defect site. In the present work, a core/shell nanofibrous membrane, composed of PCL as shell and PVA:Gly as core, was developed utilizing the coaxial electrospinning technique and characterized morphologically, mechanically, physically, chemically, and thermally. Moreover, the characterization results of the core/shell membrane were compared to monolithic electrospun PCL, PVA, and PVA:Gly fibrous membranes. The results showed that the core-shell membrane appears to be a good candidate for GBR application with a nano-scale fiber of 412 +/- 82 nm and microscale pore size of 6.803 +/- 0.035 mu m. Moreover, the wettability of 47.4 +/- 2.2 degrees contact angle (C.A) and mechanical properties of 135 +/- 3.05 MPa average modulus of elasticity, 4.57 +/- 0.04 MPa average ultimate tensile stress (UTS), and 39.43% +/- 0.58% average elongation at break are desirable and suitable for GBR application. Furthermore, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results exhibited the formation of beta-Gly.Article Citation - WoS: 3Citation - Scopus: 2Parametric Sensitivity Analysis and Performance Evaluation of High-Temperature Anion-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell(Mdpi, 2022) Mehrtash, MehdiIn this paper, a three-dimensional model of a high-temperature anion-exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-AEMFC) operating at 110 degrees C is presented. All major transport phenomena along with the electrochemical reactions that occur in the cell are modeled. Since the water is exclusively in the form of steam and there is no phase transition to deal with in the cell, the water management is greatly simplified. The cell performance under various current loads is evaluated, and the results are validated against the experimental data. The cell performance is examined across a range of operating conditions, including cell temperature, inlet flow rate, and inlet relative humidity (RH). The critical link between the local distributions of species and local current densities along the channels is identified. The distribution of reactants continuously drops in the gas flow direction along the flow channels, causing a non-uniform local current distribution that becomes more pronounced at high current loads, where the rate of water generation increases. The findings show that while a higher inlet flow rate enhances the cell performance, a lower flow rate causes it to drop because of reactant depletion in the anode. The sensitivity analysis reveals that the performance of an AEMFC is highly dependent on the humidity of the gas entering the cell. While high inlet RH on the cathode side enhances the cell performance, high inlet RH on the anode side deteriorates it.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: 6Citation - Scopus: 9Design and Optimization of Piezoelectric-Powered Portable Uv-Led Water Disinfection System(Mdpi, 2021) Sala, Derda E.; Dalveren, Yaser; Kara, Ali; Derawi, MohammadDue to the environmental pollution threatening human life, clean water accessibility is one of the major global issues. In this context, in literature, there are many portable water disinfection systems utilizing ultraviolet (UV) radiation. UV water disinfection systems employ piezoelectric-based electric power along with UV light-emitting diode (LED) sources. This paper elaborates on the detailed design and parametric optimization of a portable UV disinfection system. The proposed system aims to generate piezoelectric harvesting-based electrical power simply by shaking, and the generated power is then used to supply UV-LEDs for water disinfection. To this end, overall system parameters along with a physical-mathematical model of mechanical, electrical and biochemical aspects of the system are fully developed. Moreover, the main design parameters of the developed model are derived for optimal operation of the system by employing Genetic Algorithm (GA). Finally, optimal design parameters were identified for three different cost scenarios. The model can further be improved for practical implementation and mass production of the system.Article Citation - WoS: 31Citation - Scopus: 36Large Scale Community Detection Using a Small World Model(Mdpi, 2017) Behera, Ranjan Kumar; Rath, Santanu Kumar; Misra, Sanjay; Damasevicius, Robertas; Maskeliunas, RytisIn a social network, small or large communities within the network play a major role in deciding the functionalities of the network. Despite of diverse definitions, communities in the network may be defined as the group of nodes that are more densely connected as compared to nodes outside the group. Revealing such hidden communities is one of the challenging research problems. A real world social network follows small world phenomena, which indicates that any two social entities can be reachable in a small number of steps. In this paper, nodes are mapped into communities based on the random walk in the network. However, uncovering communities in large-scale networks is a challenging task due to its unprecedented growth in the size of social networks. A good number of community detection algorithms based on random walk exist in literature. In addition, when large-scale social networks are being considered, these algorithms are observed to take considerably longer time. In this work, with an objective to improve the efficiency of algorithms, parallel programming framework like Map-Reduce has been considered for uncovering the hidden communities in social network. The proposed approach has been compared with some standard existing community detection algorithms for both synthetic and real-world datasets in order to examine its performance, and it is observed that the proposed algorithm is more efficient than the existing ones.
