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.

Weed-competitive cultivars are desired in the wake of growing popularity of organic farming, environmental pollution and evolution of herbicide resistance in weeds. This research work evaluated the weed competitive ability of three forage maize cultivars (ADA-523, AGA and SASA-5) against the noxious weed barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) P.Beauv.). The study was conducted in spring 2018 and repeated in summer 2018. Results of this study showed that maize-barnyardgrass competition significantly decreased the growth of forage maize plants. For instance, barnyardgrass decreased the maize plant height by 11.9-16.9%, leaf length by 13.3-20.2%, leaf width by 20.2-27.4%, and number of leaves by 14.3-25.0%. Fresh and dry weights of maize plants were also significantly decreased as a result of weed-crop competition. Barnyardgrass decreased the shoot fresh weight (30.7-60.6%), shoot dry weight (33.3-52.2%), leaf fresh weight (33.4-56.5%) and leaf dry weight (31.9-50.0%) of the maize plants. An interactive effect of weed × maize cultivars was found non-significant. Forage maize cultivars also varied occasionally for their traits. Nevertheless, ADA-523 had a higher plant height, leaf length, leaf width, leaf fresh weight and leaf dry weight than the cultivars AGA and SASA-5. On the other hand, the cultivar SASA-5 had a higher shoot fresh weight, shoot dry weight and root fresh weight than the other cultivars in the study. This research work concluded that the forage maize cultivars in the study did not vary for the weed-competitive ability. Further, barnyardgrass-maize competition could decrease the growth and development of the maize cultivars.

This study was carried out to determine the influence of different levels of alfalfa meal and the addition of enzyme on performance, carcass and intestinal parameters in growing quails. Japanese quails (n=240), 1 days of age, were divided into 6 dietary treatment groups and the experiment lasted for 5 weeks. In each experiment group there were 4 replicates, and in each replicates there were 10 chicks. Six diets, arranged a factorial design with three alfalfa meal levels (0, 2.5 and 5.0 %) and two levels of added enzyme (0.0 and 1.0 g/kg) were used. The treatments did not effect on the body weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio. However, relative liver, leg+back, intestine weights and crypt depth were significantly increased, and relative heart and breast weights and villus width decreased by dietary alfalfa meal levels. The addition of enzyme to diets containing alfalfa meal did not affect the performance and carcass parameters, but reduced the intestinal histomorphology parameters in quails. According to the results obtained from the experiment, it can be said that the use of alfalfa meal in growing quail diets did not affect the performance, but the use of alfalfa meal at the level of 2.5% in the diet promotes intestinal development.

Due to a better understanding of its positive effects on nutrition and health, consumer demands for sesame seeds and products have increased steadily in recent years. The aim of the study is to determine the total phenolic content belonging to 17 different sesame genotypes (with different seed color) and the antioxidant content by DPPH and ABTS methods. The total amount of phenolic substance varied between 1.99-6.81 mg GA/g, and the highest amount of phenolic content was obtained from the Libya genotype, while the lowest value was obtained from the Gaziantep-Oğuzeli genotype. While antioxidant activity values obtained according to DPPH method varied between 8.23 and 17.50 mg Trolox/g, antioxidant activity values obtained according to ABTS method ranged between 3.62 and 4.18 (mmol Trolox)/g. According to the correlation analysis, it was determined that there was a statistically significant and positive relationship between antioxidant capacities according to total phenolic content, DPPH and ABTS methods. However, no relation was found between the seed color and these properties.

The existence of a large amount of seeds in citrus fruits results as a major impediment to customer acceptability, even if the fruits have high organoleptic properties. Irradiation, which mainly reduces seed number of varieties, is a faster way than hybridization. The use of irradiation in citrus breeding programs is now quite widespread with most programs in the major citrus producing countries actively developing new selections. The present study reports the primarily results of gamma irradiation on seed number and fruit quality of Ortanique tangor mutant population. The shoots of scion were irradiated with gamma rays from 60Co at the dose of 50 Gy (gray) in April of 2014. All the treated buds were then immediately budded onto rootstocks and the survival rate was recorded as 60.34%. In order to stabilize the mutation, mV3 plants were developed by re-budding and plants at mV3 generation were transplanted in the orchard in 2017. Within the following year, 68 mV3 plants out of 852 grown in the field bore sufficient amount of fruit and were screened in terms of 19 fruit quality characters such as seed number per fruit, fruit diameter and ripening index. Fruit diameters of mV3 population varied from 56.72 mm to 84.79 mm, and fruit weight ranged between 90.00 g and 287.60 g. The number of seeds per fruit ranged between 0.6 and 13.1 whereas seed number of non-irradiated Ortanique tangor was recorded as 10.7 in the same fruit crop year. In general, fruit characteristics such as fruit weight, fruit height and fruit diameter which describe fruit size of a big part of the population, were similar to Ortanique tangor. According to primarily results, 18 plants have been described as low seeded (≤4). In addition, a cluster analysis was performed by using Euclidean similarity coefficient and similarity index ranged between 29.29% and 93.10% regarding variables related to fruit. The stability of mutations detected is being evaluated and new commercial field trials will be established with the selected materials.

The research was carried out in a 3-floor cage system in the research farm of Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University. 6 chickens were placed in each cage compartment and 5 repetitions were created on each floor. Existing eggs were collected at 9:00 - 13:00 and 16:00 from a total of 90 Atak-S chickens between 24-42 weeks. A total of 1442 eggs were obtained from 90 chickens. To determine the relationship between cage position and laying time, correspondence analysis was applied. SPSS package program was used to analyze the data. According to the results, it was found statistically significant that chickens on different floors lay eggs at different times. According to the results of the correspondence analysis, the first dimension explanation power was 99.7% and the explanation power in the second dimension was 0.3%. When the inertia in terms of lattice layers in the first dimension was examined, it was determined that the explanation power of the first floor was 65.4%, and in the second dimension, the explanation power of the second (56.9%) and third floor (41.8%) was higher. When the variability in terms of egg collection hours in the first dimension was examined, it was determined that the explanatory power for egg collection at 13:00 was 52.8%, and in the second dimension, it was 79.6% for the egg collection at 16:00. As a result, it was determined that the chickens on the first floor lay eggs between 9:00 am and the chickens on the 2nd and 3rd floor between 13:00 and 16:00. Although the eggs vary depending on the ambient temperature, it is known that they are usually collected in the morning hours by the producers. Therefore, it is important to rearrange the frequency of egg collection both economically and in terms of consumer health.

In this study, antioxidant, oxidant and oxidative stress index of Thymbra spicata L. collected from Duhok (Iraq) region were determined. The aerial parts of the plant were extracted with ethanol. Rel Assay Diagnostics kits were used for detect TAS, TOS and OSI values. As a result of the studies, it was determined that TAS value of plant extract was determined 8.399±0.102, TOS value was 6.530±0.115 and OSI value was 0.078±0.001. As a result, it was determined that T. spicata has high antioxidant potential and in this context, can be used as a natural resource.

In this work, control capacity of the four isolates (GN22-1, HP15, HP5-2, HP3-1) of entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana Bals. (Vuill) were evaluated against Tribolium castaneum (Herbst, 1797) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) adults under laboratory conditions. To test the effect of each of the isolate on adults of T. castaneum were dipped into 1×108 conidia/ml suspension of each isolate. The data for mortality was recorded after 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 21st, and 23rd day. Thirteen days after application, isolates were listed as GN22-1 (72.85%), HP3-1 (48.88%), HP15 (47.37%) and HP5-2 (30.43%) based on the mortality rate they caused. Mortality rate was 83.52% at the end of the 23rd day with isolate GN22-1. While HP3-1 (53.74%) and HP15 (52.24%) caused more than 50% effect at the end of 23 days incubation period, the effect of HP5-2 remained only 32.51%. In addition, LT50 and LT90 rates were also determined. We arrive to the conclusion that especially GN22-1 isolate can has a potential in the control of this insect and may serve an alternative to chemical insecticides.

This research was conducted for 42 days, in order to determine the effects of fluctuate lighting program on production and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. 300 day old Ross 308 chicks were used. Chicks were randomly distributed to 2 lighting groups which were normal lighting (control) and fluctuate lighting, and each group was divided in to 3 replicates containing 50 chicks. For both groups lighting was arranged as 23 hours of lighting versus 1 hour of dimming. Control group was subjected to constant lighting of 20 lux/m2 for the days 0-21, and 5 lux/m2 for the days 22-42; while in the fluctuate lighting group was subjected to lighting of 5 lux/m2 for 45 minutes and additional 20 lux/m2 for 15 minutes every hour. There were no differences of final body weight, weekly body weight gain, cumulative feed intake, cumulative feed conversion ratio, viability, foot and leg problems, hot and cool carcass weight, thigh weight, breast weight, wing weight, back weight, liver or heart weights. However, there were statistically significant differences of gizzard weight and abdominal fat weight between two groups. In conclusion, gizzard and abdominal fat weights of broilers subjected to fluctuate lighting are less than control. This suggests that fluctuate lighting can be used to lower abdominal fat which is an important problem in broilers.

In this study, it was aimed to utilize artichoke leaf powder (