Pleurotus tuber-regium has been used as fodder and traditionally used as medicinal supplement. The aim of this study was to screen in vitro proximate biochemical composition and nutritional potentiality of P. tuber-regium extract for further in vivo analysis of impact of the extract on serum lipid and testosterone profile of rats. Total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol were measured photometrically. Testosterone was measured by chemiluminescence immune assay. P. tuber-regium extract contains different biochemicals such as proteins, carbohydrates, tannins, flavonoids, phenols etc. and showed highly quantified calorific value (297.89±1.92 calori/100g). Acute toxicity test showed no mortality and toxic behavioural symptoms. Significant decrease in total cholesterol (75.52±0.39mg/dL), LDL cholesterol (34.58±1.69mg/dL) and triglyceride (81.31±1.25) were observed in rat group treated with 200mg/kg dose of extract. 400mg/kg dose of extract showed higher efficacy than 200mg/kg dose of extract and significantly decreased total cholesterol (72.25±1.11mg/dL), LDL cholesterol (26.37±1.21mg/dL) and triglyceride (69.42±0.72). The extract showed testosterone enhance efficacy. 400mg/kg dose of extract showed high level testosterone (178.96±0.68 ng/dL) enhance efficacy than 200mg/kg dose (174.64±0.64ng/dL). Due to hypocholesterolaemia and testosterone elevating properties of P. tuber-regium extract, it can be said that, mushroom P. tuber-regium can be consumed as healthy diet supplement to maintain cholesterol level and to maintain good male reproductive health.

Eggs were coated with propolis in order to determine its effect on egg quality and total bacterial count. Effect of storage time prior to propolis coating was also studied. Eggs were obtained from a local farm, coated with 0, 3, 6 or 9% of propolis and stored at 4 ºC with a humidity of 75% for 30 days. A total of 18 eggs were used for egg quality traits and 6 eggs were chosen for microbial activity for each group. Bacteria were recovered with sterile cotton swabs from egg surfaces. Colonies with different morphology and color were detected. 11 bacterial species were determined following the characterization of 14 isolates. Elevated levels of bacterial counts were detected for daily eggs, which were significantly higher than those stored for 30 days. The quality traits of the daily eggs have also been found higher compared with the other groups. It was observed that coating the eggs with varying concentrations of propolis lead to significant differences in the total bacterial counts of the eggshells. Moreover, the egg quality traits which decreased with the increase in storage time have not been further affected with propolis coating.

Small walnut aphid (Chromaphis juglandicola (Kalt.) (Hem.: Aphididae) and Dusky-veined walnut aphid (Panaphis juglandis) (Goeze) (Hemiptera: Callaphididae) are important pests in walnut orchards in Lake Van Basin, Turkey. Aphids, which are colonized separately in the upper and lower parts of the walnut leaf, cause loss of quality and quantity in the walnut when their population is dense. In this study, population growth rate parameters based on feeding with both aphids of Chrysoperla carnea (Stephen) (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae), which is one of the important predators of the pest, were determined. The experiments were carried out in climatic rooms under 25±10°C, 65±5% humidity and 16: 8 (L: D) h (5,000 lux) lighting time conditions. Life table parameters were estimated according to age-stage, two-sex life table method. The values obtained for the intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), net reproductive rate (R0) and mean generation time (T) were 0.082 d-1, 1.082 d-1, 59.47 offspring and 49.76 d, respectively of C. carnea fed on Chromaphis juglandicola and Panaphis juglandis. Results obtained might be used in pest management program that will be prepared for the aphids.

Heavy metal environmental contamination consequent of anthropogenic factors has become a global concern with cadmium and lead constituting a major public health, livestock and ecological threat. This study, therefore, uses goats (as sentinel animals) raised in 2 different regions based on their mining history (previous and existing) to evaluate exposure to cadmium and lead and their consequent toxicities and pathological changes. A total of 130 goats (composed of 88 goats which constitute the suspected exposure (SE) group and 44 goats, the suspected unexposed (SU) group) were sampled. Blood and tissue samples (liver, kidney and muscles) were analysed for lead and cadmium levels using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer along with the complete blood count analysis. The mean blood lead levels (BLLs) and cadmium levels (BCLs) in the goats from the SE groups were 14.59 and 3.12 µg/dl respectively, which were significantly higher than the SU groups (9.23 and 0.46 µg/dl respectively) A significantly higher frequency of goats in the SE (93.18%) also had an elevated BLLs compared to the SU group (78.57%). The levels of tissue lead and cadmium in both the SE and SU groups were found significant and higher than the FAO/WHO maximum limits. The packed cell volume, red blood cell count, and haemoglobin concentration were found significantly lower, and the platelet count and some leucocyte parameters (total white blood cell, neutrophil, eosinophil, and monocyte count) were found significantly higher in the SE group. The elevated cadmium and lead level in both groups further highlight the ubiquitous spread of cadmium and lead environmental contamination in both study regions and the direct risk of exposure to human and animals in Nigeria. The relative differences in the observed pathological changes in the two study groups also suggest the influence of the environmental heavy metal pollution and exposure levels on health.

Proteins consumed by poultry turns into ammonia as a result of microbial activities depending on the pH, temperature, moisture content of the litter, litter type, manure condition, relative humidity and ventilation condition and spreads to the environment as ammonia gas. Ammonia gas, which is one of the problems caused by poultry breeding, is a harmful gas in terms of animal welfare, health of employees and its effects on the environment. In this article, ammonia gas emission in poultry and practices to reduce this emission have been discussed and recommendations have been made.

In this study, we examined how the new type of coronavirus (COVID-19), which originated in Vuhan, China, affected the whole world in a short time, affected individuals ‘ recreational activities and how much these activities changed after the normalization process. After the first case was announced in our country on March 10, 2020, many measures were taken, and within the scope of these measures, bans and partial bans occurred. The coronavirus, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and has become a deadly virus all over the world, has also directly affected the recreational activities of people. The study, the longing of individuals to green areas during this epidemic period was evaluated by comparing the conditions before and after the normalization process of recreational activities. In addition, the findings obtained in accordance with the survey conducted in the study indicate that the new coronavirus affects both the recreational activities and psychological conditions of people.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) has been cultivated as an important cereal crop for more than 9,000 years and more than half of the world’s population depend on rice as it is their primary source of energy. Almost 30% of the current world cereal production is represented by the rice alone. It is estimated that the world’s population will reach 9.1 billion by 2050 i.e. 34 percent higher than today and for ensuring an ample amount of food and nutrition to such large population, global consumption of cereals will need to increase from 2.6 to 2.9 billion tonnes by 2027. On the other hand, the impacts of climate change in agriculture are expected to be negative, threatening the global food security. Besides, agriculture and global food security will be severely affected due to the COVID-19 pandemics as its after-effects are yet to be ascertained. The world needs an introduction of a new “Green revolution” in agriculture to increase crop production for food security and biofuel, because conventional breeding method have not brought much of gains not keeping its pace with the world population growth. Hence, the current study was done to review the various ongoing approaches and possible ways of designing a rice with enhanced productivity and photosynthetic capacity. One of the ways to increase yields, photosynthetic capacity accompanied by an increased Water Use Efficiency (WUE) and Nutrient Use Efficiency could be to introduce C4 traits into rice. Besides, genetic engineering using CRISPR-Cas9, molecular breeding, developing ideotype, heterosis breeding, developing apomictic rice, nitrogen fixing rice, use of nanotechnology as well as precision farming are the probable future approaches for designing a rice with high productivity. However, there are challenges and limitations in developing such rice and further research in this matter could help us get closer to developing the future rice.

It is stated that concrete, which is the basic building block of most of the buildings built today, is the most consumed the construction material in the world after water. cement is that is the main ingredient of concrete, has significant share because of the cost of concrete, the use of various additives as a cement substitutes is the subject of many studies. However, it should firstly be determined to what extent the additives used to affect the concrete properties. In this study, it was tried to determine to what at level the use of the ash of rice husk as a cement substitute changed some concrete properties. Within the scope of the study, the usability of the raw form of rice husk as aggregate in concrete was evaluated and thus an effective method in the disposal of rice husk, which is a agricultural waste, was tried to be determined. The study results show that the addition of both ash of rice husk and rice husk aggregate significantly alter almost all properties of concrete. These changes are at different levels for different characteristics. As a result of the study, it was determined that as the amount of foam increased, the flow diameter increased, while the addition of rice husk decreased the flow diameter. It was determined that the addition of rice husk decreases the depth of water penetration depending on time, the porosity of the samples with the high level of rice husk addition increases, and the compressive and flexural strength decreases.

In this study, wheat flour was substituted with the following ratios of the raw (RCBH) and leached (LCBH) cocoa bean hull (CBH) in pound cakes (PC) (CBH/wheat flour ratios: 20/80 (20%), 30/70 (30%) and 40/60 (40%)), respectively. The proximate composition and the content of bioactive compounds in the cake samples for each weight ratio of RCBH and LCBH and in the hulls were evaluated. Fiber, ash, total antioxidant activity (TAA) and total phenolic compound (TPC) contents increased with the CBH content in the cakes. No significant difference was found in the specific volume among the cake samples. Based on the results of the textural analysis, all cake samples showed higher hardness, lower springiness and cohesiveness than those of the control cake. Regarding to the color of the crumb and crust, the 40% LCBH and RCBH cakes presented the lowest L*, a* and b* values. According to the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), it was observed that the properties with respect to the cell uniformity, adhesiveness, sweetness, oiliness and humidity of the 20LCBH and 20RCBH cakes can be distinguished clearly from the other flour substituted cakes.

Colour is an essential parameter at product quality control stages, and finally, it is necessary for the consumer marketing decision. It is possible to damage the products during the process from collection to storage. Also, it is a well-known condition, cold environmental conditions protect fruits from deformations negative effects, but most of the time, most of the consumers keep the fruits at room temperature in open packs during the consumption process. Also, this condition affects the product storage time. In this study, it is aimed that to determine the behaviours of the fruits in room temperature and humidity conditions. For this aim the colour change of the damaged pears were determined, in another term, colour change value from red to green and yellow to blue at the damaged pears were determined with lightness values by using image analysis technique and analysed with data mining methods. For this purpose, 100 “Akça” pear and 100 “Deveci” local pear cultivar used for experiments. Fruits were equally damaged by using a pendulum mechanism. The damaged fruits were kept at room temperature. Colour change areas on fruits were evaluated with X-rite Ci60 spectrophotometer, and the hardness of fruits was measured by using a fruit penetrometer. The colour (L, a, b) and ΔE values were analysed for the fruit cultivars. The relationship between fruit hardness and colour change were also demonstrated. The predictions were done supervised machine learning algorithms (Decision Tree and Neural Networks with Meta-Learning Techniques; Majority Voting and Random Forest) by using KNIME Analytics software. The classifier performance (accuracy, error, F-Measure, Cohen's Kappa, recall, precision, true positive (TP), false positive (FP), true negative (TN), false negative (FN) values were given at the conclusion section of the research. The best prediction were found at the Majority Voting method (MAVL) 98.458 % success given with 70% partitioning.