Levels of arsenic (As), lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), calcium (Ca), chromium (Cr), potassium (K), sodium (Na), and zinc (Zn) in locally cultivated rice consumed in Ondo and Ekiti States of Nigeria were investigated. The rice samples were obtained from six different rice-producing towns; Akure, Ondo, Ado, Igbemo, Ikole and Erinjiyan. The estimated dietary intake (EDI) of these elements were determined and compared with the provisional tolerable daily intake (PTDI) and dietary reference intake (DRI) values for toxic and essential elements respectively. The measured mean levels of Pb, As, Cr, Cd, Zn, Na, Ca and K were 0.047 ± 0.007, 0.041 ± 0.004, 0.570 ± 0.032, 0.026 ± 0.003, 7.856 ± 0.659, 42.15 ± 0.191, 337.11 ± 0.315, and 2650.09 ± 0.337 µg/g respectively while the average EDI were 00.101 ± 0.042 µg/day, 0.088 ± 0.14µg/day, 1.234 ± 0.045 µg/day, 0.057 ± 0.002 µg/day, 0.017 ± 0.071 mg/day, 0.091 ± 0.013 mg/day, 0.73 ± 0.018 mg/day and 5.742 ± 0.337 mg/day respectively. The EDIs were not significantly higher than the reference values for the elements except Cr. Also the rice samples were not rich enough in sodium, calcium and potassium compared to the dietary reference intakes for these elements. It is recommended that rice diets should be supplemented with other food items such as meat, fruits and vegetables.

Ensuring comfort of use and security of pedestrians, which are the main users of urban green spaces, and the determination of their needs are important since local authorities are guiding for new pedestrian zone studies in the Konya city. Because of the problems caused by the upper structure, the necessary care is not given in terms of transportation comfort, pedestrian safety, vehicle security, plant design and ergonomic / antropemetric standards. The pedestrian way and refuge landscape designs have an important position and amount among open green areas on the scale of Konya. However, it was identified that the applications conducted were inadequate in terms of aesthetic and functional characteristics and were not suitable for the urban landscape design principles, in general, and the standards of urban afforestation of the streets. In this study, the current situation of 3 main streets of Konya used most intensely was examined in terms of landscape design criteria and some suggestions were made by attempting to identify the improvement works that should be performed by the public authorities.

There are hundreds of years old wild sweet chestnut trees grown among alder, hornbeam, and pine etc. trees in natural forest of Giresun/TURKEY. In this study, trace element contents of chestnuts collected from chestnut trees in these natural forests were investigated. For this purpose, A total of eight elements, manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co), selenium (Se) and lead (Pb) were determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in chestnut samples collected from ten chestnut trees. The content of trace elements was determined separately in fruit, bark and pellicle parts of chestnut. In chestnut fruit samples, highest concentration values in mg kg-1 of Mn, Fe, Zn, Ni, Cu, Se, Co and Pb are: 88.29, 72.96, 27.76 8.25, 7.81, 2.28, 0.056 and 0.043 respectively. Chestnut bark has been shown the highest values as Mn 176.01, Fe 96.55, Zn 26.97, Ni 4.33, Cu 8.91, Se 3.08, Co 0.089 and Pb 0.058 mg kg-1. The highest concentrations of trace elements in chestnut pellicle are found as Mn 176.26, Fe 92.98, Zn 60.06, Ni 5.79, Cu 11.4, Se 3.29, Co 0.135 and Pb 0.095 mg kg-1. These results suggest that natural chestnuts grown in the Giresun region are quite rich nutrients in terms of trace element contents.

The present study used chemical fertilizer, brown algae compost and zeolite carried out in the field of Giresun Hazelnut Research Center between May-November 2014 in pots according to randomized blog design as three replicate each. Treatment groups were consist of eight different combinations as follow; G1-Control, G2-Zeolite, G3-Compost, G4-Chemical Fertilizer, G5-Zeolite+Compost, G6-Zeolite+Chemical Fertilizer, G7-Compost+ Chemical Fertilizer, G8-Compost+Zeolite+ Chemical Fertilizer. The brown algae (Cystoseira sp.) were used as compost material. These combinations were applied to green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). The green beans were seeded by hand to arrange planting depth of 5-6 cm and 20 seeds/m2. Except control group, each treatment was added fertilizers as 50 g zeolite, 50 g compost, and 25 g chemical according to treatment design. Half of the chemical fertilizers were added at seeding time and the rest after two weeks. Collected soil samples were analyzed right after harvest, the greatest values of treatment groups were determined as; Carbon% G1: 5.08, nitrogen G3: 0.09 ppm, sodium G5: 139 ppm, potassium G6 and G8: 5 ppm, magnesium G2: 1865 ppm, calcium G6: 8.33 ppm, manganese G2: 359 ppm, iron G6 : 16070 ppm, cobalt G6 and G7: 7.91 ppm, copper G2: 17.5 ppm, zinc G8: 28.0 ppm, selenium G7: 4.17 ppm, cadmium G5: 0.08 ppm, lead G4: 5.31 ppm. The greatest harvest value as g/m2 was obtained from zeolite only group G2 with 273 while the lowest was obtained from Compost only group G3 with 113 g/m2, obviously showing the effectiveness of zeolite only application moreover, also thinking that better results may get if the present study run for longer period.

This study presented was carried out in Tokat province of Turkey and its districts. Viticulture made as an agricultural activity in this region has focused on grapevine cultivation in recent years. In this study; be aware of the status producers of agricultural insurance and the trend towards agricultural insurance, reasons for had or not having an agricultural insurance, natural disasters that create risks in vineyards and producers expectation were determined to identify. The main material of study are data were obtained from questionnaire study. In this study, 34 farmers with agricultural insurance and 59 farmes who do not have agricultural insurance producers in the field for a total of 93 questionnaires were realized through face to face. The obtained data were interpreted by interpreting the percentage distribution tables, average, maximum and minimum calculations. According to the results of the study, Narince grape cultivars have been reported as the most commonly cultivated variety in the region. It was determined that this natural disaster risks, respectively, of which the most important of hail and frost damage. Regional vineyards are in the high risk group in terms of the frequency of natural disaster encounter 54.52% of producers are aware of agricultural insurance, 32.25% of producers insect grape products in different years until today. Producers who do not have agricultural insurance are the most important reason for not paying insurance that they do not believe that the claims payments are made in a complete, fair and timely manner and difficulty paying premiums. If vine leaf is included in the insurance, 65% of the producers have been declare that they can substantially insure.

Niğde is one of the provinces in Turkey where potato production is carried out intensively. In this study it was aimed to examine the change in the potato production costs and profitability in Niğde province in 2000-2014 period. In Niğde the absolute profit obtained from the potato production was calculated as 355.6TL/da for 2014. Among the examined years, the year in which the highest absolute profit was 2005 with 450.8 TL/da and the lowest absolute profit was in 2012 with -329.7 TL/da. Gross production value can meet the production costs in all of the examined years except for 2012. However, with the increase in production costs, absolute and relative profits tended decrease.

The main objective of this study was to measure and analyzes economic efficiency of crop production in North Kordofan State. Secondary objectives included: estimate technical, allocative and economic efficiency and construct efficiency profile determination and the effect of socio-economic factors behind inefficiency. Primary data was collected by a structured questionnaire following stratified random sampling technique from 205 farmers, while secondary data was collected form relevant Institutional sources. The stochastic frontier production and cost function model analysis was used to estimate the technical, allocative and economic efficiency of producing crops. The predicted technical efficiency and economic efficiency are the basis for estimating allocative efficiency of farm. Results indicated that the mean technical efficiency of sorghum, millet, groundnuts and sesame were 0.57, 0.73, 0.53 and 0.74, respectively. The mean allocative efficiency of sorghum, millet, groundnuts and sesame production were 0.84, 0.83, 0.92 and 0.90, respectively. The mean economic efficiency of sorghum, millet, groundnut and sesame were 0.48, 0.62, 0.49 and 0.67, respectively. Farmers who have credit access are more technically efficient than those who have no credit access.

The shrublands are very common in Urla-Çeşme-Karaburun peninsula located in the western point of Turkey. Prickly shrubby burnet (Sarcopoterium spinosum L.) is one of the common weed which has intensive thorns making its consumption for the local domestic animals. However, Sarcopoterium spinosum is a valuable and common medicinal plant in the Mediterranean region. Crude extract of S. spinosum leaves exhibited higher antioxidant activity, as 3143.5± 238.5 µM TEAC (Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity)/g dry weight (DW), when compared to other medicinal plants found in the literature. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of extraction parameters on the content and biological activity of the extract by response surface methodology (RSM) as well as to identify its major compounds. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) was employed to investigate the phenolic content of S. spinosum extract. The composition of the phenolic contents including hyperoside and isoquercetin, the latter being the major component, in S. spinosum extract has been shown for the first time by HPLC. Antimicrobial activity of S. spinosum extract, identified by minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) assay, indicated that the crude extract had antifungal activity against Candida albicans.

In this research, it was aimed to determine the adsorption, saturation reaching and desorption effects of ammonium, which is one of the parameters that should be kept in control for aquarium life, by clinoptilolite type zeolite which is a natural filtration material. In the aquarium water, Z1: 20 mg/l TAN and Z2: 40 mg/l TAN concentrations were determined to have adsorption up to Z1: 10 mg/l TAN and Z2: 24 mg/l TAN concentration at the end of the experiment period. After this phase, where zeolites had reached saturation, desorption system was created, and 2 groups were formed with 5-liter research aquariums and 3 repetitions. During the five-days test, water parameters were determined daily and at the same time of day (10.00). At the beginning of the experiment, mean values of 0.4 ± 0.00 mg / l TAN in Z1 and Z2 groups were determined at the end of the experiment as 1.55 ± 0.176 mg/l (15.5%) and 2.153 ± 0.27 mg/l (13.5%) TAN in Z1 and Z2 groups, respectively. When the data obtained in this study were evaluated, zeolite was determined to make desorption periodically in proportion with the amount of retained ammonium, when it reached the saturation. In intensive aquaculture systems or aquarium conditions, recondition of zeolite for necessary periods is recommended to be performed by considering these data.

Bu çalışmada, Türkiye'de yaklaşık 600 km2'lik alanda 18 ay süresince uygulanan yerli halkla yüz yüze görüşmeler, anket ve foto kapanların yerleştirilmesini içeren bir araştırma gerçekleştirilmiştir. Sahada yapılan anketler ve foto kapan çalışmaları, çizgili sırtlanların Hatay ile Suriye sınırı civarında ve Şanlıurfa’da güçlü şekilde yaşadıkları konusunda belirgin kanıtlarla sonuçlandı. Ancak, bu bölgede çizgili sırtlanların durumu hakkında kapsamlı bir çalışma yapılmamıştır. Elde edilen sonuçlarımız çizgili sırtlanın sıklıkla çorak arazide ve Hatay ilinde tavuk çiftliği etrafında görüldüğünü göstermiştir. Alternatif olarak, Şanlıurfa İli'nde küçük gruplar halinde yaşıyorlar. Çizgili sırtlanlara uygun birkaç mağara, bu mağaralarda ve sonrasında gözlemlenen ayak izleri, dışkılar ve diğer hayvan kalıntıları ile tespit edilmiştir. Çizgili sırtlanlara uygun birkaç mağara ve sonrasında yapılan gözlemlerde ayak izleri, dışkılar ve diğer hayvan kalıntıları tespit edilmiştir. Saç, kulak ve karkas dokularından izole edilen Cytb mitokondrial DNA'yı kullanarak, çizgili sırtlanların moleküler karakterizasyonunu Türkiye'de ilk defa gerçekleştirdik. Türkiye'den 10 farklı çizgili sırtlan örneğinden Cytb DNA sekanslarının dizilerinin birbirlerinin özdeşi oldukları bulunmuştur. Tarih öncesi olanlar da dahil olmak üzere daha önce rapor edilen Cytb dizilerin karşılaştırılması sonucu Ctyb geninin Hyaena hyaena türleri arasında oldukça muhafaza edildiğini göstermiştir. Arazi çalışması sırasında, yoğun tarım alanları, yerleşimler ve taş ocakları nedeniyle incelenen bölgelerde habitat tahribatının ve parçalanmanın yüksek düzeyde olduğu gözlemlenmiştir. Hatay ve Şanlıurfa illerinde, yasadışı avlanma, çobanlar tarafından sıklıkla mağaranın kullanımı, yaygın kirpi avlanması, zeytinyağı üretim tesislerinden gelen su kirliliği ve karayolu kazaları çizgili sırtlan nüfusunu olumsuz etkilemektedir. Çizgili sırtlanların yaşam alanını korumak için kapsamlı bir çalışma ve koruma planının uygulanması gerektiği sonucuna varılmıştır.