Central Black Sea Region Of Turkey Research Articles

Samsun İli’ndeki Bazı Doğal ve Egzotik Ağaç ve Çalı Türlerinde Arsenik Birikimi

The bioaccumulation of metalloids especially arsenic (As) concentrations in urban and suburban environments and bioaccumulation of As in natural and exotic tree and shrub species are not well-documented. One of the most significant sources of As are vehicular emissions and coal combustion. The bioaccumulation of As in some natural and exotic tree and shrub species in Samsun and Atakum in Central Black Sea Region of Turkey is studied. Most of the studies about As pollution were carried out in heavily polluted environments such as lead smelters. However, high As concentrations were found for some natural and exotic tree and shrub species in urban and suburban environments in this study. It has been found that M. grandiflora twigs had the highest As concentrations in all of the studied species. Leaf As concentrations were found to be high in E. camaldulensis, P. abies, A. cyanophylla, C. vitalba, and L. vulgare as compared to twigs and flowers, while twigs of O. europaea and M. grandiflora had high As concentrations in Samsun center. E. camaldulensis and A. cyanophylla had high As concentrations in their leaves in Atakum similar to Samsun city center. M. grandiflora twigs and L. vulgare leaves can be used for biomonitoring studies due to high As concentrations in their tissues.

The relation between intellectual risk-taking regarding science classes and test anxiety inventory of secondary school

In learning of students, cognitive and affective skills and interaction of these skills are very significant. Intellectual risk taking (IRT) and test anxiety inventory (TAI) fall between these cognitive and affective skills. In this research, in addition to the relation between the skills of secondary school students, whether their class level and science success (SS) have any affect receives scrutiny. The research data has been obtained from 591 students, studying in 12 different government schools in 5 different provinces of Central Blacksea Region of Turkey. Three different data collection tools were used in this research conducted with the cross-sectional method. The correlation analysis results show that there is a negative relation between success in science and TAI, whereas there is a low relation between TAI and IRT. MANOVA results have revealed that as class level gets higher, IRT decreases and TAI does not have a significant tendency. It has been found that as the academic success of students gets higher, their TAI decreases and their IRT points do not have a specific tendency. Keywords: intellectual risk taking; science class; science success; test anxiety

Seasonal and regional distribution of tularemia cases in Amasya, Turkey

Tularemia have attracted attention due to increased number of cases since 2009 in Amasya region which is located at Central Blacksea Region of Turkey. The aims of this letter were to provide information about the disease, to emphasize the importance of early treatment due to the outbreak peak in our province between 2009-2012 and water chlorination in epidemic areas. A total of 250 tularemia-suspected patients (117 female, 133 male; mean age: 42 yrs) who were admitted to our hospital with the symptoms of sore throat, fever, malaise and/or presence of neck mass, from 20 different locations within last four years were included in the study. Serum samples of 73 (29.2%) patients yielded ≥ 1/160 titers with F.tularensis microagglutination test which were considered as positive. All positive cases presented with the oropharyngeal form of the disease. The year with the highest number of tularemia cases was 2010. When the regional distribution was evaluated, it was detected that positive cases have precipitated especially in the southeastern (highland area) and northeastern (lowland area) parts of Amasya (34/73; 46.6%). Majority of the tularemia cases (53/73; 72.6%) were identified in colder seasons. The number of cases in rural and urban centers have decreased after 2010. In conclusion, it is considered that the emergence of new cases is likely to persist due to the geographical characteristics of Amasya and occupational properties (livestock breeding) of the population. Therefore, the clinicians should consider tularemia in differential diagnosis of the cases originated from risky rural areas.

Infectivity-Resistotype-Genotype Clustering of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains in the Central Blacksea Region of Turkey

The increase in the prevalence of epidemic strains of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospitals and community requires special attention of infection control. The aim of this study was to determine the pathogenic phenotype (i.e. infectivity and resistotype) and genotypic characteristics (i.e. PFGE-pulsotyping, SLST-spa typing, MLST-sequence typing, eBURST-clonal complex detection algorithm) of clinical MRSA isolates in the Central Blacksea region of Turkey, in order to understand their short- and long-term epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics, and to investigate any probable presence of a significant clustering. This prospective study included consecutive but non-repetitive 48 MRSA isolates (of them 18 were colonized strains and 30 were causes of nosocomial infection) and seven methicillin-susceptible S.aureus (MSSA, all were isolated from nosocomial infection), collected between December 2006-February 2007 period from hospitalized patients. Identification of the isolates were performed by Vitek-2 automated system (BioMérieux, USA), and in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing by broth microdilution method and Vitek-2 automated system. The MRSA isolates found susceptible to erythromycin (n= 10) were further investigated for the presence of ermA gene by the PCR method. All the strains were typed by spa-typing and PFGE-pulsotyping methods. Among the isolates with different spa-types, representatives were selected (3 MRSA, 7 MSSA) and typed with MLST typing method. Among the isolates with different spa-types, representatives with different antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were selected (n= 8), and SCCmec types were determined by the multiplex PCR method. Antimicrobial resistance patterns of the isolates were digitized to get standardized antimicrobial resistance phenotypes. Clustering of MRSA isolates in pattern groups on the basis of discriminatory characteristics, namely infectivity, phenotype and genotype were statistically analyzed with specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. As a result, three different antimicrobial resistance phenotypes were found in MSSA isolates, whereas 13 were identified in MRSA isolates. In MSSA isolates, seven different PFGE-pulsotypes were detected, as compared to 14 pulsotypes in MRSA isolates. Among MRSA isolates, 10 sporadic strains with single PFGE-pulsotypes were detected. All MRSA isolates, with two exceptions (t459, t632), were of t030 spa-type; in the MLST analysis of the representatives of different spa-types (n= 3), a single type of MLST-clonal complex (CC8) and single MLST-sequence type (ST239) were identified. Each of the seven MSSA isolates yielded different spa-types, MLST-clonal complex types and MLST-sequence types (t777-ST5-CC5; t660-ST25-CC5; t153-ST34-CC30; t015-ST45-CC45; t267-ST97-CC97; t377-ST360-CC8; t084-ST15-C15). In the statistical analysis of 38 non-sporadic MRSA isolates, the isolates in Group-13 (n= 16; infectious, resistotype 14, pulsotype 4; antimicrobial resistance score= 24) displayed significant infectivity-phenotype-genotype clustering (p< 0.001). In 27 of the MRSA isolates, decreased susceptibility to teicoplanin (MIC= 4 µg/mL) was detected. Although, global MRSA isolates belonging to MLST-CC8, MLST-ST239, t030 spa-type were usually expected to be resistant to erythromycin, 10 such strains were erythromycin susceptible. However, ermA gene was found in six of these 10 strains, leading to a conclusion that the ermA gene of these isolates might be dysfunctional due to a point mutation or deletion. Selected representatives of MRSA isolates with different antimicrobial susceptibility patterns (n= 8) were detected to be SCCmec type III. In conclusion, S.aureus isolates in the patient population of our hospital representing the Central Blacksea region showed statistically significant clustering in infectivity, antimicrobial resistance phenotype and clonal genotype (p< 0.001). The dominant MRSA clone was ST239 which was one of the five major pandemic MRSA clones. Nosocomial MSSA isolates displayed long-term clonal diversity. This study produced regional evolutionary-epidemiological data that may support further regional, national and international long-term surveillance studies of S.aureus strains.

Effect of pretreatments on seed germination rate of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) populations

The aim of the present study was to investigate effective methods in breaking the seed dormancy for red clover populations collected from Central-Black Sea Region of Turkey. To increase germination percentage of red clover, precooling, preheating, hot water, potassium nitrate and mechanical scarification were used. The results pointed out that there was a significant difference among the populations and treatments regarding germination rates. While average germination vigor of seeds was 29.4% in control treatments, it increased to 54.2% in mechanical scarification. Additionally preheating and precooling treatments were recommended. Key words: Germination, hardseedness, red clover.