Northeastern Part Of Turkey Research Articles

A qualitative study on Turkey's earthquakes, the century's catastrophe: Perspectives and coping methods of surviving nursing students.

To understand the experiences and coping strategies of nursing students who were impacted by Turkey's once-in-a-century catastrophic earthquakes in 2023. Nursing students rarely experience a disaster in person, and their imagination can be limited. This study used a descriptive-qualitative study design. It was conducted with 17 first-year nursing students, studying at a university in the northeastern part of Turkey, who survived the earthquake. A personal information form and a semistructured questionnaire were used to collect the data. The data were collected between March and April 2023 and analyzed using the content analysis method and the MaXQDA programme. The data were grouped into three main themes-"What 'earthquake' was and what it is now?," "Am I aware of the 'earthquake' now?," and "Coping mechanisms and supporting systems"-and categorized into seven subthemes. The experiences of earthquake-affected nursing students emphasized the importance of being prepared for disasters and meeting their emotional needs. Including specific courses and case studies regarding disasters, whether natural or human-made, in education programs can ensure better prepared nurses. Also, the integration of content about management and coping with such crises into nursing curricula is considered vital.

The impact of livestock activities and geochemical processes on groundwater quality of fractured volcanic rock aquifer: Lake Çıldır watershed (NE Turkey)

This paper presents the impact of livestock activities and geochemical processes on the water quality of a fractured volcanic rock aquifer in the Lake Çıldır watershed, located at the northeastern part of Turkey. The existence of a high livestock population and animal grazing activities in meadow and pasturelands of the watershed during the short summer period poses serious stress on both surface and groundwater resources being the only drinking water supply for the local communities. Therefore, understanding the effect of grazing and livestock breeding activities occurring in the recharge areas of the fractured volcanic rock aquifer is vital to take precautions in order to protect limited water supplies at the watershed and vulnerable lake ecosystem as well. The mean nitrate content of the groundwater was measured at 6.4 ± 6.6 (std. dev) mg/L in the wet (before grazing) period and 7.1 ± 5.9mg/L in the dry (after grazing) period. Despite low nitrate concentration levels of groundwater, microbial contamination was observed in the spring waters at alarming levels especially after the animal grazing activities. 56%, 26%, and 11% of the groundwater samples showed bacterial contamination in terms of total coliform, fecal coliform, and fecal streptococci contents, respectively, prior to grazing activity, while in pursuit of intense livestock grazing at highland, these microbial indicators have been increased to 92%, 85%, and 77% in the dry period. A significant increase observed in fecal contamination indicates the negative impact of livestock activities on groundwater quality. Al (200-638µg/L) and Fe (66-218µg/L) enrichments locally observed in groundwater were related to advanced argillic alteration (kaolinization) and hematization zones in pyroclastic rocks.

Modeling compatible taper and stem volume of pure Scots pine stands in Northeastern Turkey

Compatible taper and volume equations for pure and natural Scots pine stands in the northeastern part of Turkey (Ardahan Province) were developed using a nonlinear mixed-effects modeling approach. Experimental data were obtained from 137 felled sample trees in different diameter and height classes. The most successful model (Jiang et al. 2005) explained 98.3% of the variance in stem diameter estimation and the RMSE, ME, MAE, AIC and BIC value obtained using this model were 1.955 cm, 0.043 cm, 1.300 cm, 9783.8 and 9812.6, respectively. Considering the criterion values of AIC, BIC and -2LnL, the model with random-effects in two parameters (b1 and b3) was the most successful for Scots pine. While the mixed model including random parameters did not completely solved the problem of the autocorrelation of errors in this study, the use of the autoregressive error structure AR(1) eliminated the autocorrelation in the residuals. In addition, the best estimation results among 20 different calibration options were obtained using the option of measuring two tree diameters at d1.30 and d5.30 with validation data. The most successful model explained 99.18% of the total variance in stem volume estimation in Scots pine.

Population Variability of Common Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L.) in North-Eastern Part of Turkey According to the Involucre Morphology

The objective of this study was to investigate involucre morphological variability of common hornbeam (Carpinus betulus L., Betulaceae) populations in Turkey. In total, 12 natural populations of common hornbeam located in four different watersheds of the Eastern Black Sea Region were sampled from three different altitude zones up to 1200 m a.s.l. Involucres have been examined biometrically by analyzing 13 morphological characteristics. High phenotypic variability was determined both among and within the studied populations. Furthermore, grouping of populations according to the eco-geographic principle was revealed. Variation in most of involucre characteristics from the Camlıhemşin, Çaykara and Trabzon-Maçka watersheds appeared to be related mostly to altitude. The trees in the higher elevations were characterized with the smaller involucres than those in the lower elevations. However, this trend has not been observed in the populations from the Giresun-Espiye watershed. Moreover, trees from that region at lower altitude had the smallest involucres. Overall, our results confirm the Eastern Black see region as one of the hot spots of biodiversity and that the involucre morphological variability is the result of the complex evolutionary process related to the adaptation and plasticity.

Investigation on the prevalence of thyroid cancer in Graves' patients in northeastern part of Turkey: is surgery a better option for patients with Graves' disease who develop antithyroid drug-related major adverse events?

To determine the prevalence of thyroid cancer in Graves' patients who underwent surgical intervention with and without a history of anti-thyroid drug related major adverse events. The data of 530 patients with Graves' disease between 2015 and 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Preoperative ultrasonography reports and thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibody values and postoperative histopathological findings were available for 94 patients that had undergone total thyroidectomy procedure. We compared the prevalence of thyroid cancer between patients with and without a history of anti-thyroid drug related major adverse events. Thyroid cancer was detected in 31 of 94 patients that had undergone total thyroidectomy. Of these patients, 18 had at least one nodule; however, thyroid cancer was incidentally detected in 13 patients without nodule. The 31 patients had the following cancer subtypes: 22 had papillary microcarcinoma, 8 papillary carcinoma and 1 noninvasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features. While thyroid cancer was present in half of the patients operated owing to anti-thyroid drug-related major adverse event, it was detected in 30% of the patients operated due to other reasons. In the present study, the prevalence of thyroid cancer among patients with Graves' disease was found to be much higher than those of other studies in the literature, suggesting that surgery can be considered primarily for the treatment of Graves' disease. Considering the surgical option in the first plan instead of radioactive iodine therapy appears to be reasonable in patients who develop anti-thyroid drug-related major adverse events.

INVESTIGATING CROSS CONGRUENCE BETWEEN BUTTERFLY TAXA AND ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SYSTEMATIC CONSERVATION PLANNING: A CASE STUDY FROM LESSER CAUCASUS ECOREGION OF TURKEY

Cross taxa congruence was investigated between butterfly taxa and ecological community for fine spatial scale (10 × 10 km² UTM grids) in north-eastern part of Turkey. The study area was evaluated within the scope of systematic conservation planning, and analyses were performed for sets of priority protected areas composed using complementarity-based site selection software Marxan. Cross taxa congruence was subsequently examined both in species richness and ecologic complementarity. Accordingly, it has been observed that the cross-taxon congruence between butterfly taxa and ecological community was relatively better than the results of previous studies. Another remarkable finding is that ecological community was a more robust surrogate than butterfly taxa. Although the results are valuable for conservation studies, they highlight the fact that a simple surrogate-based site selection would be inadequate to represent overall biodiversity. The weakness of congruence patterns among surrogates would also lead to gaps in biodiversity conservation. These findings therefore draw attention to the necessities of incorporating surrogates of distinct ecology or some other surrogates like environmental parameters into conservation planning. Otherwise, there may be mistakes regarding species representation and the vast majority of species may be misrepresented in protected areas and protected area plans. At this point, it should be emphasized that understating cross taxa congruence and/or relationships is a key component for efficient biodiversity conservation.

Molecular characterization of wild grapes from northeastern part of Turkey

Progress in grape breeding requires the exploitation of genetic variation among market classes, races and gene pools. Wild grapevines (Vitis vinifera ssp. sylvestris) are being endangered in their natural habitats and high priorities should be given to the wild germplasm. Turkey is one of the richest sources of wild grapevine and they mostly grown on forest trees on river basin. The present study was carried out to determine the amount of genetic variation and the degree of relatedness among 23 wild grape genotypes using 17 simple-sequence-repeat markers (SSR). Two international grape cultivars, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are also included study. Number of alleles per locus of the 17 Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers ranged from 3.0 to 14.0 and a total of 162 alleles with an average of 9.53 alleles per locus. The average expected and observed heterozygosity values were 0.773 and 0.781, respectively, which exhibited high level of genetic diversity in the wild grape germplasm. The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean analysis revealed three main genetic clusters that partially separated wild grape genotypes each other and. The international cultivars formed a out group. The high genetic diversity among native wild grapes from Coruh valley is suggesting that this area could be one of the centre of diversity of the specie. The results indicate a substantial genetic diversity in V. vinifera ssp. sylvestris and the need of exploring a wider area to increase the chance of finding a particular genotype.

Isophya sonora, a new bush-cricket species from Eastern Black Sea region of Turkey (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae; Phaneropterinae).

Herein I describe Isophya sonora sp. nov. a new bush-cricket species from Trabzon, Northeastern part of Turkey (Black Sea Region). The species is characterized by the shape of the markedly convergent fastigium, distinctly broadened pronotum at metazona, elongate tegmina and large mirror area of left tegmen in the male. The bioacoustic characteristics, and the shape and number of the teeth of stridulatory organs are also different compared to closely related species. The new species is clearly a member of I. zernovi species-group allied with I. bivittata. Both the bioacoustics, and the morphological data, demonstrate the relationships between species of the I. zernovi species-group are as follows: (I. bicarinata + (I. zernovi + I. horon)) + (I. sonora sp. n. + I. bivittata?))) + (I. karadenizensis + I. autumnalis)))).

Medium scale earthflow susceptibility modelling by remote sensing and geographical information systems based multivariate statistics approach: an example from Northeastern Turkey

The aim of the present study was to produce an earthflow susceptibility map for the city center and environs of the province of Rize located at the Northeastern part of Turkey. The study area is the rainiest region of Turkey, and due to the triggering effect of precipitation earthflows are frequently observed in and around the study area. Besides this point, weathered rock units and steep topography accompany with precipitation for the occurrence of earthflow cases. Considering this point, an earthflow susceptibility mapping was inferred to be a necessity for the area. Parameters, such as lithology, slope gradient, slope aspect, topographical wetness index (TWI), stream power index (SPI), slope curvature, and sediment capacity index (LS) were considered to be earthflow conditioning parameters. A multi-temporal earthflow inventory map for a period of 4 years (2011–2015) was initially generated by way of remote sensing approach and field surveys. Earthflow susceptibility map was produced using the logistic regression method after which the produced susceptibility map was validated. The mapped earthflows were separated into two groups prior to modelling and validation. The first group was for training and the second group was for validation steps. The accuracy of the model was measured by fitting them to a validation set of mapped earthflows. Area under curvature (AUC) approach was applied for validation purposes. The prediction capability of the earthflow susceptibility map produced can be regarded as acceptable in accordance with the AUC values of 0.62 for the logistic regression model. Based on these results, the obtained earthflow susceptibility map can be used to mitigate hazards related to landslides and to aid in land-use planning for the Rize city center.

Some Important Horticultural Properties of Summer Apple Genotypes from Coruh Valley in Turkey

ABSTRACT Coruh Valley located in Northeastern part of Turkey is accepted one of the 34 hotspots for plant biodiversity area by International Union for Conservation of Nature. In this study, 22 seed propagated summer apple genotypes were evaluated using a number of phenological, morphological, and biochemical markers. Phenological, morphological, and sensory traits were highly differed among genotypes. Harvest dates of genotypes were found quite variable ranging from 9 July to 8 August. Fruit weight were found between 81.3 and 125.4 g. Round, conic, and oblate were the common fruit shapes of genotypes. Fruit firmness and stalk length recorded in the range of 3.10–6.11 kg/cm2 and 4.0–8.0 mm, respectively. High total phenols and antioxidant capacity were found for genotypes CVE 16 and CVE2. This study could help promote the commercialization of promising summer apple genotypes, which are rich in bioactive compounds for use in for nutraceutical purposes. CVE2 and CVE16 genotypes displayed superior traits as summer apple genetic resources, and they could be important for future breeding activities.

Morphological and Biochemical Diversity Among Autochthonous Grape Cultivars

Northeastern part of Turkey is rich in terms of autochthonous grape cultivars. In the region Yusufeli district has special importance for historical cultivation of grapevine. This small district has over fourteen local grape cultivars. Present study describe morphological and biochemical characteristics of nine autochthonous grape cultivars grown in Yusufeli district in Turkey. The standard Turkish grape cultivar ‘Cavus’ was also included experiment to make comparison with local ones. Bunch size, berry color, berry shape and usage are the searched main morphological characteristics. Phenolic compounds, organic acids, vitamin C and specific sugars were the main biochemical parameters. We found a wide variation among both morphological and biochemical characteristics. The cultivars showed low to medium bunch size. Chlorgenic acid (2.231–4.811 mg/L), syringic acid (1.027–5.426 mg/L) and rutin (1.013–1.129 mg/L) were found the highest content in berries of cultivars. As expected, tartaric acid that characteristic for grape berries was the dominant (ranged from 1.826 to 3.336 g/L) and followed by malic acid (ranged from 1.089 to 2.344 g/L). The all autochthonous grape cultivars had glucose the highest concentration as major sugar and followed by fructose. It can be concluded that morphological and biochemical characteristics analyzed could be useful to give information about selection of the promising grape cultivars for breeders.

Pre-service Primary School Teachers’ Scientific Epistemological Beliefs and Attitudes toward Science: Is there a Relationship?

The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service primary school teachers’ scientific epistemological beliefs and attitudes toward science. The study also investigated whether there was a relationship between epistemological beliefs and attitudes toward science. Sample of the study consisted of 90 students pursuing their third year in primary teacher education at Giresun University, which is located in northeastern part of Turkey. Data for the study were collected through the use of the Scientific Epistemological Beliefs Scale and the Attitudes toward Science Scale. Means, t-test, and correlation analysis were used to analyze data. Findings showed that these pre-service primary school teachers’ scientific epistemological beliefs differentiated for the dimensions of the scale from relatively naive to sophisticated beliefs. There were no significant differences between male and female pre-service teachers in terms of scientific epistemological beliefs and attitudes toward science. Results also showed a positive significant correlation between the scientific epistemological beliefs and attitudes toward science.

System Identification and Seismic Performance Assessment of a Stone Arch Bridge

ABSTRACT This paper presents system identification and seismic performance assessment of a masonry arch bridge located on the railway route which is on the northeastern part of Turkey. Forty-one masonry arch bridges were registered as historical and needed to be preserved on the route. On the other hand, the railway line passes through North Anatolian Fault, resulting in high seismic demand on bridges. Therefore, seismic assessment of the bridges was carried out by finite element analysis; however, masonry structures such as stone arch bridges have significant uncertainties in terms of material properties, boundary conditions, and modeling assumptions. As a result, it becomes almost unavoidable to perform dynamic identification tests to validate finite element models (FEM). Modal properties of 12 bridges such as modal frequencies, mode shapes, and modal damping ratios were identified through vibration measurements collected under ambient conditions, impact loading, and train passage. Based on identified modal parameters, FEM of the bridges were updated to obtain actual values of Young’s modulus of masonry and soil. FEM updating procedure was performed by minimizing the difference between experimental and analytical modal properties. Afterwards, seismic performance assessment of a representative bridge was carried out using ANSYS software. Two different nonlinear approaches were considered, namely, pushover and nonlinear time history (NLTH) analyses. In the analyses, macro-modeling approach was followed to develop homogenized behavior of stone and mortar. It was found that mass proportional pushover analysis gave similar results to NLTH in terms of seismic performance. The other significant point was that modeling soil medium reflects the actual behavior of the bridge in the sense that artificial stress concentrations do not occur at the pier base. It was also observed that tensile strength capacity was reached on spandrel walls which may result in a probable failure.

Sex differences in immunity in a natural population of bush-cricket (Orthoptera: Phaneropterinae)

Immune defense often differs between sexes, where females generally exhibit higher individual immunity than males. Such sexually dimorphic immune defense stems from differential investment into reproduction as females allocate more resources into mating. Contrary to prevailing predictions, some studies have found that females exhibit a weaker immune response than males. In this study, I examined both humoral (phenoloxidase activity and lytic activity) and cellular (encapsulation ability) immune parameters including cuticular melanization in a field population of a bush-cricket (Isophya reticulata) that is an endemic species in the northeastern part of Turkey. As expected, females showed a higher phenoloxidase activity than males, whereas there were no sex differences in lytic activity. Males expressed a higher encapsulation response than females. These results indicated that sex differences in immunity may be variable and females may not always exhibit higher immunity than males. Another interesting finding of this study was a positive relationship between stridulatory file length, phenoloxidase activity, and wing melanization. This finding demonstrated a connection between size differences in stridulatory apparatus that affect sexual signaling and immune response.

Bioacoustics and morphology of a new bush-cricket species of the genus Isophya (Orthoptera: Phaneropterinae) from Turkey.

A new interesting species of the genus Isophya, I. horon sp. n., is described from Northeastern part of Turkey. The new species can clearly be distinguished from the closely related species by the calling song of male, and morphology. Morphologically, the shapes of the pronotum, tegmina, male cerci and ovipositor are distrinctive. The morphology, song structure and distribution clearly indicate that this new species is a member of the I. zernovi species-group. Additionally, some preliminary data on the male calling songs of closely related species (I. zernovi, I. karadenizensis and I. autumnalis) are also given. In addition, the preliminary data related to spermatophore characteristics (spermatophylax and ampulla weights) and sperm number of the new species are provided.

Faith Tourism and “Possible” Faith Tourism Routes between Turkey and Georgia

Local administrations support tourism because of its positive economic effects on local economy besides, culture and faith tourism is important through preservation of cultural heritage and local development. In this study, potential in faith tourism of North-eastern part of Turkey and Georgia are explicated and to contribute to cross-border collaboration and tolerance between different religions, a proposal religious tourism route is designed as basic step. Beyond being the first study done in the one of less developed regions of Turkey and Georgia, this paper provides valuable information to tourism planners and decision makers to build joint projects between two neighbouring countries.

Assessment of the effects of different tree species on urban microclimate.

Trees in urban areas are important for their ecological functions in addition to their esthetic characteristics. Trees provide positive effects on urban microclimate by canopy, reflection, and transpiration activities; therefore, they help to decline formation of heat island. The objective of this study was to determine thermal effects of 15 different tree types: 4 coniferous and 11 deciduous species commonly found in the city of Erzurum located at the northeastern part of Turkey. The relationships between sky view factor and surface temperature regarding the differences in leaf density and tree species. In August 2016, the surface temperature of trees was measured using a thermal camera at 10:00am and 4:00pm hours. Sky view factor (SVF) was obtained by fisheye photos and physiologically characteristics of trees were determined. In all trees while the surface temperature was 20.1°C at 10:00am, it was 23.4°C at 4:00pm. Among the deciduous tree species, Betula verrucosa Ehrh. and Robinia pseudoacacia "Umbracuifera" had the lowest surface temperature; however, Abies concolor (Gord. & Glen.) had the lowest surface temperature among the coniferous tree species. The results indicated that the surface temperatures of different tree species varied considerably, and the SVF value had a significant effect on tree surface temperatures. However, it was obtained that the leaf types had no statistically significant effect on tree surface temperature.

Seasonal dynamics of freshwater pathogens as measured by microarray at Lake Sapanca, a drinking water source in the north-eastern part of Turkey.

Monitoring drinking water quality is an important public health issue. Two objectives from the 4 years, six nations, EU Project μAqua were to develop hierarchically specific probes to detect and quantify pathogens in drinking water using a PCR-free microarray platform and to design a standardised water sampling program from different sources in Europe to obtain sufficient material for downstream analysis. Our phylochip contains barcodes (probes) that specifically identify freshwater pathogens that are human health risks in a taxonomic hierarchical fashion such that if species is present, the entire taxonomic hierarchy (genus, family, order, phylum, kingdom) leading to it must also be present, which avoids false positives. Molecular tools are more rapid, accurate and reliable than traditional methods, which means faster mitigation strategies with less harm to humans and the community. We present microarray results for the presence of freshwater pathogens from a Turkish lake used drinking water and inferred cyanobacterial cell equivalents from samples concentrated from 40 into 1L in 45min using hollow fibre filters. In two companion studies from the same samples, cyanobacterial toxins were analysed using chemical methods and those dates with highest toxin values also had highest cell equivalents as inferred from this microarray study.

Chemical Composition of Seed Propagated Chestnut Genotypes from Northeastern Turkey

Turkey ranked third place in the world for chestnut production after China and Bolivia and the country has unique chestnut populations including valuable and diverse seed propagated chestnut genotypes. In this study, chestnuts (Castanea sativa) were collected during the 2016 harvest season from Northeastern part of Turkey from promising 12 different seedling origin genotypes. Tree growth habit, nut weight, kernel ratio, kernel color, moisture, crude protein, crude fat, dietary fiber, total polyphenols, antioxidant activity and fatty acid content of fruits belongs to 12 genotypes were determined. The results showed that, the majority of genotypes had semi upright tree growth habit. The nut weight and kernel ratio were between 5.05 g (K-10) and 10.10 g (K-5) and 71.10% (K-1) and 82.44% (K-3) among genotypes. The total crude fat content ranged from 0.87% (K-7) to 2.61% (K-1) while the crude protein ranged from 4.80% (K-7) to 7.65% (K-1). The dietary fiber content made up no more than 3.61% of the remaining portion of the kernel. It was found that total polyphenols was between 1.66 and 2.70 g GAE/kg and antioxidant activity was between 5.80 and 9.07 μmol Trolox equivalent/g dry weight basis. Oleic and linoleic acid were the major fatty acids in all chestnut fruits and followed by palmitic and linolenic acid. The results showed that there was enough variations among seed propagated chestnut genotypes for most of the searched parameters and this highlights the importance of conserving the genotypes, as their high levels of heterogeneity allow them to respond to abiotic and biotic stresses and adapt to low-input farming systems.

First Record of Janthina globosa Swainson, 1822 (Mollusca, Gastropoda) and Prostheceraeus giesbrechtii Lang, 1884 (Platyhelminthes) in the Gulf of Antalya

During the survey study, a holo-planktonic gastropod species Janthina globosa Swainson, 1822 was captured for the first time during trawl shootings at 20-30 m depths from the Gulf of Antalya on 24th June 2015. On 15th July 2015, during the underwater diving, a colourful flatworm Prostheceraeus giesbrechtii was observed at the hard substratum depths of 5-7 m near the old Harbour (Antalya) (36o 35’ 5,15’’N; 30o 42’ 1,45’’E). The flatworm was taken to laboratory and photographed. Its length was approximately 2-3 cm and 1-1.5 mm thick. This species is the first record for the Gulf of Antalya, the North-eastern Mediterranean part of Turkey.