Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is one of the important antioxidants, which naturally present in seminal plasma of fish. On the other hand, whether its effect may improve sperm quality following cryopreservation process still remains its uncertainty. Thus, the present study aimed to analyse the effect of different extenders supplemented with different ascorbic acid concentrations on post-thaw motility and fertility of frozen-thawed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) sperm. Selected sperm samples were pooled and diluted at 1:3 ratios with two different extenders (E) composing such as (E-1) 300 mM glucose, 10% egg yolk and 10% DMSO and (E-2) 0.6 mM sucrose and 10% DMSO. Each extender was supplemented with vitamin C at 1, 5 and 10 mM concentrations. Following dilution, the sperm was loaded into 0.25 ml straws and frozen in liquid nitrogen vapour. The straws were then plunged into liquid nitrogen for storage. Fertilization was carried out using the dry fertilization technique. Highest post-thaw motility (50±5.77) and fertilization (56±1.00) results were obtained with the extender-1 (E-1) containing 10% DMSO concentration. In conclusion, the present study indicated that addition of ascorbic acid to the extenders improved rainbow trout sperm motility resulting higher fertilization of the eggs.

Propolis is a special resin and wax material collected from the leaves and shells of trees, buds and shoots of plants by honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). In recent years, many researchers have studied the chemical composition, biological activity and pharmacological properties of propolis. The colour, odour and pharmacological properties of the propolis composition also vary as the composition changes depending on the plant, region, season and bee colony. Flavonoids, aromatic acids, phenolic acids and esters are the main compounds responsible for the biological activity of propolis. A number of studies have been conducted on the use of propolis or its active ingredients in the treatment of cancer. It has been observed that the use of propolis did not cause side effects according to in-vitro and in-vivo studies. Propolis should be extracted with different compounds for use in biological assays. The most commonly used compounds for extraction are ethanol, methanol, oil and water. A number of studies have been carried out showing the antitumor effect of propolis in cell culture and animal tests. The search for new drugs derived from natural products, which may function as chemotherapeutic agents and have low side effects, has increased in recent years. Combination with antioxidant therapy may improve the side effects of chemotherapy on leukocytes, liver and kidney, thus increasing the effect of chemotherapy with dose increase.

Sous-vide process is a cooking method for vacuumed products which are placed in a water bath or steam oven at controllable low temperatures and specific long times. This technique is widely used for cooking of meat and meat products which have limited shelf life throughout cold storage. Temperature, time and vacuum parameters used in sous-vide method are effective factors on meat quality. It is realised that meat tenderness increases with this technique due to cooking is performed at low temperatures. For the same reason, more water is retained in the texture and cooking losses are reduced. In addition to this, it is appeared that the sous-vide method provides protection of nutrient components that are water-soluble and/or adversely affected by high temperature applications, so that this method increases the nutritional value of meat. On the other hand, use of controllable cooking temperatures facilitates to reach targeted core temperatures in meat. With the help of homogeneous distribution of heat, even colour formation on meat can be observed. Oxidative reactions in the product are limited by the application of vacuum, so that product quality can be preserved for a long time. The risk of food safety as a result of low temperature applications in sous-vide cooking is eliminated by increasing cooking times. In this review, it is aimed to inform about effects of sous-vide cooking technique on meat quality under the heads of; texture, juiciness and cooking losses, colour, flavour, lipid and protein oxidation and microbial quality. Besides, the effects of sous-vide cooking method on quality parameters, different effects of sous-vide and traditional cooking methods on quality parameters were deeply discussed.

Ultraviolet-B (UV-B: 280 to 320 nm) radiations have appeared to be detrimental to plants, due to their damaging effects on proteins, lipids, membranes and DNA. UV-B radiations are a significant regulator of plants’ secondary metabolites. High intensity of ultraviolet radiations may interfere with growth and productivity of crops. But low levels of UV-B radiations give rise to changes in the plants’ secondary metabolites such as phenolic compounds, carotenoids and glucoseinolates. Therefore, low intensity of UV-B radiations may be used to generate plants, enriched with secondary metabolites, having improved reproductive ability, early ripening and tolerance against fungi, bacteria and herbivores.

The amount of secondary metabolites can be increased with different elicitor applications in vitro. It has been determined that zinc sulphate significantly increases the amount of capsaicin in the cell culture of red hot pepper. It is important to determine how the metal applied as elicitor will have an effect on plant metabolism. In the study, it was aimed to determine the effects of zinc sulphate (ZnSO4) applied to the cell suspension cultures of pepper seeds at different concentrations (0.1 M, 0.2 M, 0.4 M) and for periods (24, 48, 72 hours) on the total protein and phenolic substance amounts, and superoxide dismutase-peroxidase enzyme activities of pepper calluses. It was observed that the amount of protein increased, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase enzyme activities decreased, and the total amount of phenolic substance increased especially in 72 hours of treatment where zinc was applied as elicitor. These results show that ZnSO4 can be used as an abiotic elicitor in plant cell culture media.

Progesterone plays a key role in the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy in mammalian. Increasing levels of circulating progesterone in the post-conception period are associated with conceptus elongation and high pregnancy rates in cattle. Contradictory results are available on the direct role of progesterone in early embryo development. The objective of this study was to evaluate direct effects of progesterone on in vitro development of cattle embryos. Immature oocytes collected from slaughtered animals and cultured in the presence of different concentrations of progesterone (25, 50, 100 ng/mL) following in vitro fertilization. Cleavage rates in 25 and 50 ng/mL concentrations of progesterone were significantly higher than those in controls and 100 ng/mL. Rate of embryos that reached to the morula stage was similar in all groups. Supplementation of 25 and 50 ng/mL progesterone to the culture media significantly increased blastocyst yield while 100 ng/mL progesterone resulted in a decrease. As a conclusion, we can suggest that progesterone supplementation in in vitro culture may support embryo development at low levels.

This paper studied the effect of livestock support policies applied in Turkey by a emprical study. The study was carried out based on the analysis of the data collected through surveys with a total of 478 livestock enterprises in the TR83 region (including Amasya, Çorum, Samsun and Tokat provinces). The enterprises included in the survey study were grouped into three categories by the number of their animals. Binary Logistic Regression Model was applied in order to define the policy-based support payment utilization probabilities of the enterprises and the factors affecting them. It was determined that approximately 45% of the enterprises cannot utilize livestock supports. The most utilized support items by the enterprises were determined as calf support, support per animal, forage plant support and raw milk support. A total of 65% of the enterprise owners think that the support amount per animal is insufficient, but regard the mentioned support item as the most important factor for improving animal presence. The utilization rates vary in terms of enterprise scales on the other hand. The support utilization likelihood of medium-scale enterprises is 3.1 times higher than small-scale enterprises, and this likelihood is 1.7 times higher for big-scale enterprises when compared with medium-scale enterprises. The study recommends that some regulations are needed in support of policies to enable a better improvement in animal presence and a homogenous distribution of support payments.

Bu çalışmada keçiboynuzu ekstraktında bulunan D-pinitolün 1-5 kDa ayırma sınırı aralığında nanofiltreler kullanılarak zenginleştirilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Zenginleştirme aşamaları ekstraksiyon, durultma, adsorban uygulaması ve nanofiltrasyon uygulamalarından oluşmaktadır. Nanofiltrasyon uygulamasını optimize etmek amacıyla Box-Behnken Cevap Yüzey Metodu (CYM) kullanılmıştır. Son aşamada elde edilen ürünün saflık kontrolü için D-pinitol içeriği, şeker kompozisyonu, toplam fenolik madde (TFM), toplam kuru madde (TKM) ve mineral madde kompozisyonları kullanılmıştır. Ekstraktlarda en yüksek D-pinitol konsantrasyonuna 5 kDa ayırma sınırındaki nanofiltrasyonda, 3 bar besleme basıncı, 25°C besleme sıcaklığı ve %83,3 permeat oranı koşullarında ulaşılmıştır. Bu koşullarda elde edilen permeat akısının D-pinitol içeriği 10,48 g/L olarak belirlenmiştir. Çalışmada ayrıca nanofiltrasyon prosesi için basınç, sıcaklık ve permeat/retentat oranı değişkenlerine bağlı bir optimizasyon modeli oluşturulmuş ve farklı koşullara bağlı olarak ekstraktların D-pinitol konsantrasyonundaki değişim yüksek doğrulukla (R2=0,91) matematiksel olarak modellenmiştir. Bu modele bağlı olarak, keçiboynuzu ekstraktlarında en yüksek sakkaroz, TFM ve TKM miktarları D-pinitol konsantrasyonunun %8,7 olduğu koşulda belirlenmiştir.

In this study, it was aimed to determine the concentrations of some elements in sediment along depht profile in core collected at the Lake Hazar (Elazıg) and to compared the results according to recent geological periods. For this purpose, the levels of arsenic (As), mercury (Hg), molybdenum (Mo), barium (Ba), uranium (U), tin (Sn), titanium (Ti), lanthanum (La) and beryllium (Be) on every 5 cm of the piston core samples taken as part of a TUBİTAK project (No: 111Y045) from Lake Hazar were detected. The lowest concentrations of Ba, Hg, La, Ti and U were found (111 ppm, 0.01 ppm, 4.4 ppm, 1190 ppm and 0.6 ppm respectively) at 81-83 cm in depth. It was determined that it belonged to 10 000 B.P. and to Holocene Period (10.5 thousand B.P.). The highest concentrations of As, Ba, Hg, Sn, La, Mo, Ti and U were found different depth in the core in Lake Hazar. The highest concentrations of Hg in the core were detected between 4-6 cm that this depth was determined corresponds to present day. The highest levels of As and Ba found that it belonged to Pre-Glacial Period/ Late Pleistocene Period (10.5 thousand B.P.). The highest concentration of other elements (Sn, La, Mo and Ti) determined that it belonged to Last Glacial Maximum Period/Late Pleistocene Period (between 23-16 thousand B.P.). The geological structure of the basin where the lake ecosystem is located, biological and hydrological processes, climatic and anthropogenic factors can be cited as the reasons for these differences.