Arylamino Substituted Mercaptoimidazole Derivatives as New Corrosion Inhibitors for Carbon Steel in Acidic Media: Experimental and Computational Study

Duran, Berrin,Yurttas, Leyla,Duran, Murat The Korean Electrochemical Society 2021 Journal of electrochemical science and technology Vol.12 No.3

Two arylamino substituted mercaptoimidazole derivatives namely 4,5-dimethyl-1-(phenylamino)-1H-imidazole-2(3H)-thione (I1) and 4,5- dimethyl-1-((p-chlorophenyl)amino)- 1H-imidazole-2(3H)-thione (I2) were synthesized and investigated as corrosion inhibitors for carbon steel in 0.5 M HCl solution by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), potentiodynamic polarization, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and SEM. The results showed that the investigated mercaptoimidazole derivatives act as mixed type inhibitors and inhibition efficiency follows the I2>I1 order. Adsorption of inhibitors on metal surface was found to obey the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Thermodynamic parameters revealed that adsorption of the inhibitors has both physisorption and chemisorption adsorption mechanism. Electrochemical test results were supported by quantum chemical parameters obtained from DFT calculations.

Investigation of Supporting Electrolyte Effect on Supercapacitor Properties of Poly(Carbazole) Films

Duran, Berrin,Unver, Irem Cakmakci,Bereket, Gozen The Korean Electrochemical Society 2020 Journal of electrochemical science and technology Vol.11 No.1

In this study poly(carbazole) films deposited on stainless steel have been investigated as electrode material for supercapacitor applications. Poly(carbazole) films were electrodeposited using cyclic voltammetry in presence of lithium, sodium and tetrabutylammonium perchlorate salts. Poly(carbazole) films doped with perchlorate anions having different counter cations were characterized by SEM, ATR-FTIR and solid state conductivity measurements. Capacitive behaviours of PCz coated steel electrodes were tested by cyclic voltammetry, charge-discharge analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. It was found that counter cation of the dopant is significantly effective on the capacitive performance on the obtained PCz films and the PCz film synthesized from lithium perchlorate has the better capacitive performance than the poly(carbazole)s synthesized from sodium perchlorate and tetrabutylammonium perchlorate salts.

XELOX Plus Bevacizumab vs. FOLFIRI Plus Bevacizumab Treatment for First-line Chemotherapy in Metastatic Colon Cancer: a Retrospective Study of the Anatolian Society of Medical Oncology

Duran, Ayse Ocak,Karaca, Halit,Besiroglu, Mehmet,Bayoglu, Ibrahim Vedat,Menekse, Serkan,Yapici, Heves Surmeli,Yazilitas, Dogan,Bahceci, Aykut,Uysal, Mukremin,Sevinc, Alper,Hacibekiroglu, Ilhan,Aksoy, Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.23

Background: XELOX plus bevacizumab (XELOX-Bev) and FOLFIRI plus Bevacizumab (FOLFIRI - Bev) treatments are an effective strategies patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).The aim of this study was to compare efficacy of first-line XELOX-Bev treatment vs FOLFIRI-Bev treatment for mCRC. Materials and Methods: A total of 409 patients with mCRC who received chemotherapy were included and divided into 2 groups. Group 1 (n=298) received XELOX-Bev and Group 2 (n=111) FOLFIRI-Bev. Comparisons were made in terms of overall (OS) and progression-free (PFS) survival, response rate (RR), and grade 3-4 toxicity. Results: Median follow-up was 11 months in Group 1 and 15 months for Group 2. Complete remission was observed in 29 (9.7%) and 2 (1.8%) patients, partial remission in 139 (46.6%) and 27 (24.5%), stable disease in 88 (29.5%) and 49 (44.1%) and progressive disease in 42 (14.1%) and 33 (30.0%) patients in Group 1 and 2, respectively. Median OS was 25 months (range 2-57 months, 95%CI; 22.2-27.7) for Group 1 and 20 months (range 1-67 months, 95%CI; 16.8-23.1) for Group 2 (p=0.036). Median PFS was 9.6 months (range 2-36 months, 95%CI; 8.8-10.4) for Group 1 and 9 months (range 1-44 months, 95%CI; 7.4-10.5) for Group 2 (p=0.019). Objective RR was 56.4% in Group 1 and 26.1% in Group 2 (p<0.001). Conclusions: First-line XELOX-Bev is more effective with a better response rate, prolongation of median PFS/OS, and a superior safety profile compared with FOLFIRI-Bev.

Effectiveness of seismic repairing stages with CFRPs on the seismic performance of damaged RC frames

Duran, Burak,Tunaboyu, Onur,Kaplan, Onur,Avsar, Ozgur Techno-Press 2018 Structural Engineering and Mechanics, An Int'l Jou Vol.67 No.3

This study aims at evaluating the performance of repairing technique with CFRPs in recovering cyclic performance of damaged columns in flexure in terms of structural response parameters such as strength, dissipated energy, stiffness degradation. A 2/3 scaled substandard reinforced concrete frame was constructed to represent the substandard RC buildings especially in developing countries. These substandard buildings have several structural deficiencies such as strong beam-weak column phenomenon, improper reinforcement detailing and poor material properties. Flexural plastic hinges occurred at the columns ends after testing the substandard specimen under both constant axial load and reversed cyclic lateral loading. Afterwards, the damaged columns were externally wrapped with CFRP sheets both in transverse and longitudinal directions and then retested under the same loading protocol. In addition, ambient vibration measurements were taken from the undamaged, damaged and the repaired specimens at each structural repair steps to identify the effectiveness of each repairing step by monitoring the change in the natural frequencies of the tested specimen. The ambient vibration test results showed that the applied repairing technique with external CFRP wrapping was proved to recover stiffness of the pre-damaged specimen. Moreover, the lateral load capacity of the pre-damaged substandard RC frame was restored with externally bonded CFRP sheets.

Antioxidant activities of honeybee products and their mixtures

Duran Özkök,Sibel Silici 한국식품과학회 2017 Food Science and Biotechnology Vol.26 No.1

In this study, the total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity, and free radical scavenging activities (FRSA) of 70 samples comprising honeybee products (honey, pollen, royal jelly, and propolis) and their mixtures were determined. The TPC was determined in accordance with the Folin–Ciocalteu method, antioxidant activity with phosphomolybdenum, and FRSA with the 1,1- diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) assays. Honeybee propolis showed the greatest TPC, antioxidant activity, and FRSA followed by pollen, honey, and royal jelly, respectively. A positive correlation was observed between TPC and antioxidant activity of honey, pollen and mixed samples (respectively, r=0.91, r=0.93 and r=0.92) (p<0.01). Similarly, honey and mixed samples exhibited positive correlations with TPC and FRSA (respectively, r=0.98 and r=0.92) (p<0.01). It was concluded that honeybee products and their mixtures have antioxidant activity and FRSA and these effects may be attributed to their phenolic content.

Microencapsulation of Antibiotic Rifampicin in Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)

Duran, N.,Alvarenga, M.A.,Da Silva, E.C.,Melo, P.S.,Marcato, P.D. 대한약학회 2008 Archives of Pharmacal Research Vol.31 No.11

The aim of this study was the preparation of microparticles containing rifampicin using a biodegradable polymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) for oral administration produced by a bacteria. The poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) microparticles with and without rifampicin were prepared by the emulsification and solvent evaporation method, in which chloroform and polyvinyl alcohol are used as the solvent and emulsifier, respectively. Microparticles were obtained within a size range of $20-60{\mu}m$ by changing the initial poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), polyvinyl alcohol and rifampicin concentrations. An encapsulation efficiency value of 14% was obtained. The optimized total yield of 60% of the poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate)/ rifampicin was obtained. A load of 0.035 mg/1mg of PHBV was reached. Almost 90% of the drug loaded in the micro-particles was released after 24 h. The size, encapsulation efficiency and ribampicin release of the micro-particles varied as a function of the initial poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate), polyvinyl alcohol and rifampicin concentrations. It was demonstrated that the microencapsulated rifampicin, although was not totally available in the medium, exhibited a similar inhibition value as free rifampicin at 24 h of incubation with S. aureus. Cytotoxicity assays demonstrated a reduction of the toxicity when rifampicin was microencapsulated in poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) while maintaining its antibacterial activity.

Uncertainty quantification and propagation with probability boxes

Duran-Vinuesa, L.,Cuervo, D. Korean Nuclear Society 2021 Nuclear Engineering and Technology Vol.53 No.8

In the last decade, the best estimate plus uncertainty methodologies in nuclear technology and nuclear power plant design have become a trending topic in the nuclear field. Since BEPU was allowed for licensing purposes by the most important regulator bodies, different uncertainty assessment methods have become popular, overall non-parametric methods. While non-parametric tolerance regions can be well stated and used in uncertainty quantification for licensing purposes, the propagation of the uncertainty through different codes (multi-scale, multiphysics) in cascade needs a better depiction of uncertainty than the one provided by the tolerance regions or a probability distribution. An alternative method based on the parametric or distributional probability boxes is used to perform uncertainty quantification and propagation regarding statistic uncertainty from one code to another. This method is sample-size independent and allows well-defined tolerance intervals for uncertainty quantification, manageable for uncertainty propagation. This work characterizes the distributional p-boxes behavior on uncertainty quantification and uncertainty propagation through nested random sampling.

Albumin-globulin Ratio for Prediction of Long-term Mortality in Lung Adenocarcinoma Patients

Duran, Ayse Ocak,Inanc, Mevlude,Karaca, Halit,Dogan, Imran,Berk, Veli,Bozkurt, Oktay,Ozaslan, Ersin,Ucar, Mahmut,Eroglu, Celalettin,Ozkan, Metin Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2014 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.15 No.15

Background: Prior studies showed a relationship between serum albumin and the albumin to globulin ratio with different types of cancer. We aimed to evaluate the predictive value of the albumin-globulin ratio (AGR) for survival of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 240 lung adenocarcinoma patients. Biochemical parameters before chemotherapy were collected and survival status was obtained from the hospital registry. The AGR was calculated using the equation AGR=albumin/(total protein-albumin) and ranked from lowest to highest, the total number of patients being divided into three equal tertiles according to the AGR values. Furthermore, AGR was divided into two groups (low and high tertiles) for ROC curve analysis. Cox model analysis was used to evaluate the prognostic value of AGR and AGR tertiles. Results: The mean survival time for each tertile was: for the $1^{st}$ 9.8 months (95%CI:7.765-11.848), $2^{nd}$ 15.4 months (95%CI:12.685-18.186), and $3^{rd}$ 19.9 months (95%CI:16.495-23.455) (p<0.001). Kaplan-Meier curves showed significantly higher survival rates with the third and high tertiles of AGR in comparison with the first and low tertiles, respectively. At multivariate analysis low levels of albumin and AGR, low tertile of AGR and high performance status remained an independent predictors of mortality. Conclusions: Low AGR was a significant predictor of long-term mortality in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. Serum albumin measurement and calculation of AGR are easily accessible and cheap to use for predicting mortality in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

Predicting the internal model of a robotic system from its morphology

Duran, Angel J.,del Pobil, Angel P. Elsevier 2018 Robotics and autonomous systems Vol.110 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>The estimation of the internal model of a robotic system results from the interaction of its morphology, sensors and actuators, with a particular environment. Model learning techniques, based on supervised machine learning, are widespread for determining the internal model. An important limitation of such approaches is that once a model has been learnt, it does not behave properly when the robot morphology is changed. From this it follows that there must exist a relationship between them. We propose a model for this correlation between the morphology and the internal model parameters, so that a new internal model can be predicted when the morphological parameters are modified. Different neural network architectures are proposed to address this high dimensional regression problem. A case study is analyzed in detail to illustrate and evaluate the performance of the approach, namely, a pan–tilt robot head executing saccadic movements. The best results are obtained for an architecture with parallel neural networks. Our results can be instrumental in state-of-the-art trends such as self-reconfigurable robots, reproducible research, cyber–physical robotic systems or cloud robotics, in which internal models would available as shared knowledge, so that robots with different morphologies can readily exhibit a particular behavior in a given environment.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> A model to correlate the morphology and internal model parameters for a robotic system is presented. </LI> <LI> Different neural network architectures are proposed to solve this regression problem. </LI> <LI> A case study is used to illustrate and evaluate the neural network proposed. </LI> <LI> Due to the properties of the maximum likelihood estimator, the best performance is reached with parallel neural network architectures. </LI> </UL> </P>

Gender Equality and Sustainable Development

Paloma Duran y Lalaguna,Ekaterina Dorodnykh 연세대학교 빈곤문제국제개발연구원 2018 Journal of Poverty Alleviation and International D Vol.9 No.1

Gender-related constraints have high costs to society in terms of untapped potential in achieving poverty eradication, health, education, food security, environmental and energy sustainability, and economic growth. There is strong evidence that closing gender gap accelerates progress towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals. While there has been some progress towards better gender equality, there is much more to be done in abolishing gender discrimination. This paper showcases various approaches and interventions to promote gender equality, implemented by the UN development mechanism, SDG Fund and its precursor the MDG Fund. The case studies represent various geographical regions (Bangladesh, the occupied Palestinian territory, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Bolivia and Nicaragua) and confirm the importance of joint efforts to promote and protect the rights of women and girls with the aim to support sustainable development. Finally, various approaches and interventions to promote gender equality (mainly through capacity development, legislative and policy frameworks, advocacy and communication, increased awareness on gender equality and women empowerment, economic and political empowerment and access to health) confirm that gender equality is a multi-dimensional issue which needs to be addressed by a range of solutions and actors. Sustainable development can never be attained without the empowerment of women and girls. Urgent actions are needed to empower women and girls, ensuring that they have equal opportunities to benefit from development and removing the barriers that prevent them from being full participants in all spheres of society.