Vermicompost products have gained a great importance in plant nutrition over the years. They are reported to have plant growth promoting effects both in horticulture and field crops. The nutritional value and chemical properties of vermicomposts highly depend on the feedstock used in their production. The aim of this study was to evaluate vermicompost manure, derived from the mixture of cattle manure and kitchen scraps, on seed germination and growth of tomato seedlings (Lycopersicon lycopersicum Mill.). Four solid vermicompost amendment rates of 0, 10, 20, and 30% were applied in plastic trays. Vermicompost application delayed and reduced seed emergence in all application rates, while in general, vermicompost substitution promoted growth tomato seedlings up to 20% of application rate. The results showed that vermicompost substitutions greater than 20% had adverse effects on seedling emergence and seedling growth parameters, which was attributed to high EC of vermicompost induced by cattle manure. Results suggest that both physical and chemical properties of the feedstock used for vermicompost production should be taken into consideration in order to sustain high vermicompost quality to ensure targeted plant growth for horticultural and agricultural purposes.

In this study, some physicochemical and microbiological properties and antioxidant capacity of 30 rosehip marmalades produced in Tokat province by industrial or regional methods were determined. pH, water activity, viscosity, total dry content, total soluble solids, total ash, total sugar content, total ascorbic acid content and Hunter values (L*, a* and b*) were carried out to determine the physicochemical properties of samples and the means were 4.12, 0.881, 2501.6 cP, 56.12%, 56.86, 0.935%, 50.24 g/L, 173.43 mg/100g, 30.89, 10.90 and 15.11, respectively. The count of S. aureus, total and fecal coliform was not detected in any samples. The total phenolic content and TEAC were performed to investigate antioxidant capacity and the average values were 921.62 mg GAE/100 g and 66.93 µmol trolox/g.

The objective of this study was to develop a rapid infrared technique to determine 10 key quality parameters (sucrose, glucose, fructose, reducing sugar, 5-HMF, °Brix, moisture content, water activity, pH and free acidity) in honey by using new generation portable and handheld devices. The composition of honey samples (n=59) collected from different parts of Turkey was analyzed by using established reference methods, giving wide range of concentrations for each parameter. The levels of sucrose and 5-HMF in some samples were above the established regulatory limits (Codex Alimentarius and European Union standards), indicating possible adulteration or process and storage abuse. Spectra were collected by using portable Fourier-Transformed infrared (FTIR) and handheld NIR (Near Infrared) spectrometers. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) approach was used to correlate the spectral features with compositional reference values, giving strong linear correlation coefficients and standard errors of prediction. Although both systems performed similarly, portable FTIR system was superior in predictions of sucrose, 5-HMF and free acidity while portable NIR system performed noticeably better for °Brix and moisture content. The data indicates that all of the 10 parameters can be measured within the minutes using both systems, providing reliable screening capabilities, flexibility and the potential for in-field applications.

Public spaces are among the spaces requiring the most importance for the design in the evaluation of outdoor spaces. Public spaces are the common areas used by people of all ages, genders, and jobs. The key feature of the environmental design made in these areas is its requirement to be at the level of meeting the needs of people from all strata. Since there is not the main method for the evaluation of environmental planning of public institutions and organizations in the current literature and these areas strongly affect the texture of the city, a questionnaire study was conducted in our study with people using the courthouse and courthouse personnel to reveal the standards, criteria and the needs of users in public institutions. According to the results of the questionnaire, solution suggestions were made by revealing the positive and negative sides of landscape designs of the courthouse.

Sweeteners that sugar substitute is a food additive that provides a sweet taste like that of sugar while containing significantly less food energy. Some sugar substitutes are produced by nature, and others produced synthetically. Sweeteners can be classified as sugar alcohols (polyols), artificial sweeteners and natural sweeteners. The need to avoid the adverse effects of sugar cannot stop feeling the taste on humans has resulted in intense use of sweeteners nowadays. There are positive and negative opinions about the effects of their use on human health. The general tendency of food producers is to reduce the amount of sugar in the groats due to negative effects in parallel. Food sweeteners are intended for a large group of consumers, and one of the main points of the sector operators is to provide healthier, natural, nutritional and low calorie sweeteners to these consumers. In this study, we evaluated the sweeteners which are most commonly used. Many studies have been done to demonstrate the safety of sweeteners. There are also studies showing that there may be side effects even if there are few. Some sweeteners have been associated with a number of symptoms. There is a need for comparative long-term work in this area.

Although the intensification of agricultural production is the reason for feeding of increasing human population the demand for organic or ecological products is increasing in parallel with the social consciousness in recent years. Hair goat breeding is made in a large part of Turkey that is suitable or may become suitable for organic production system with a few arrangements. In this study, Hair goat breeding was evaluated together with the Regulation on the Principles and Implementation of Organic Agriculture. The study is important in terms of ensuring sustainability of hair goats under the threat of crossbreeding by assessing it within organic production.

Selection of dairy cattle for higher milk yield, without considering important non-production traits, has decreased reproductive efficiency. Thus, low reproductive performance is a major problem in high yielding dairy cattle. Previous studies showed that dietary manipulation to improve fertility holds much promise and dietary fats have positive effects on reproductive functions in high yielding dairy cattle. Positive effects of fats on reproductive performance due to the fatty acids, which are the precursors of progesterone and prostaglandins. Progesterone and prostaglandins hormones are most important factors that play a role on the control of reproductive functions. The amount of linoleic, linolenic and arachidonic fattty acids in ration can be increase or decrease progesterone and prostaglandins synthesis especially PGF2α from ovary and uterus, respectively. Also fatty acids can be influence follicular development, ovulation, embryonic implantation and maternal recognition of pregnancy. This review focuses on the relationships between dietary fatty acids and reproductive functions such as hormone profiles, ovarian function and follicular development, oocyte quality, embryo development, embryonic implantation and maternal recognition of pregnancy in dairy cattle.

Transposable elements (TEs) are the most abundant group of genomic elements in plants that can be found in genic or intergenic regions of their host genomes. Several stimuli such as biotic or abiotic stress have roles in either activating their transcription or transposition. Here the effect of the Panicum mosaic virus (PMV) and its satellite virus (SPMV) infection on the transposon transcription of the Brachypodium distachyon model plant was investigated. To evaluate the transcription activity of TEs, transcriptomic data of mock and virus inoculated plants were compared. Our results indicate that major components of TEs are retroelements in all RNA-seq libraries. The number of transcribed TEs detected in mock inoculated plants is higher than virus inoculated plants. In comparison with mock inoculated plants 13% of the TEs showed at least two folds alteration upon PMV infection and 21% upon PMV+SPMV infection. Rather than inoculation with PMV alone inoculation with PMV+SPMV together also increased various TE encoding transcripts expressions. MuDR-N78C_OS encoding transcript was strongly up-regulated against both PMV and PMV+SPMV infection. The synergism generated by PMV and SPMV together enhanced TE transcripts expressions than PMV alone. It was observed that viral infection induced the transcriptional activity of several transposons. The results suggest that increased expressions of TEs might have a role in response to biotic stress in B. distachyon. Identification of TEs which are taking part in stress can serve useful information for functional genomics and designing novel breeding strategies in developing stress resistance crops.

This study was conducted to determine the response of 19 bread wheat varieties to natural infection of leaf diseases under ecological conditions of Düzce in the Western Black Sea Region. The trial was established in accordance with randomized block with four replications and the seeds were planted on 17.11.2015. The wheat varities were observed for the associated diseases including septoria leaf spot disease (caused by Septoria tritici during milking stage), yellow rust disease (caused by Puccinia striiformis at the end of the flowering period), brown rust disease (caused by Puccinia recondita at the beginning of milking stage). The disease severity were assessed in the field conditions according to natural contamination. According to determined diseases severity, the most sensitive variety against septoria leaf spot disease was “Bereket” with 60%, while the most tolerant variety was “Aslı” with 14%. The most sensitive variety against yellow rust disease was “Tekirdağ” with 45.4%, while the most tolerant variety was “Midas” with 0.6%. The most sensitive variety against brown rust disease was “Tahirova” with 22%, while the most tolerant variety was “Midas” with 0.2%. The results indicated that promising wheat varieties for future breeding studies were: Aldane, Aslı, Konya 2002, Köprü, Masaccio and Tosunbey (against septoria leaf spot disease), Aslı, Esperia, Kate A1, Karasunya Odeska, Masaccio and Midas (against yellow rust disease), Aldane, Aslı, Bereket, Köprü, Masaccio, Midas and Tekirdağ (against brown rust disease).

Sage (Salvia spp.) is the most important and largest genus of the Lamiaceae family, and the popularity among medical plants is increasing. Sage plant is widely used in pharmaceutical, food and spice industries and as tea by many people. The fact that the plant may be marketed after being collected uncontrollably from the nature threatens its future. Therefore, it is necessary to put these species under protection and to start breeding projects as well to do genetic characterization of them. For this purpose, in the study, 11 different sage species from the Eastern Mediterranean region were collected and genetic differences among species were determined using SRAP (Sequence dependent replicated polymorphism) markers. As the result of our experiments, average polymorphism content, allele number and polymorphism information content (PIC) of the species were calculated as 90.91%, 4.2 and 0.91, respectively. The PIC values ranged from 0.04 to 0.99. While the average genetic difference among species was determined as 43.15%, the highest genetic difference, which was between Salvia aucheri spp. aucheri and Salvia aramiensis, was found to be 61.46%. The least genetic difference, on the other hand, was detected between Salvia tomentosa and Salvia hypergeia species with 22.62% similarity. Additionally, according to the observations made through the study, the SRAP markers we used were thought to be reliable for the genetic characterization of sage species. In breeding programs where interspecies dissimilarities are considered, selecting parental species with high genetic differences will increase the success.