Monetary policy rules in practice: Re-examining the case of Turkey

This paper investigates possible asymmetries in the monetary policy reaction function of the Central Bank of Republic of Turkey over the business cycles. It is found that the bank reacted more aggressively towards output stabilisation during recessions than expansions. The empirical evidence suggests that the inflation targeting policy of the Turkish Central Bank was accommodative rather than stabilising. Furthermore, it is found that although the Central Bank of Republic of Turkey responded to foreign reserves, real exchange rates and short-term capital inflows both in expansion and recession periods, the bank targeted money growth, budget deficits, and net foreign assets only in expansion periods.     

Identification and quantification of phosphatidylcholines containing very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid in bovine and human retina using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

The retina is one of the vertebrate tissues with the highest content in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). A large proportion of retinal phospholipids, especially those found in photoreceptor membranes, are dipolyunsaturated molecular species. Among them, dipolyunsaturated phosphatidylcholine (PC) molecular species are known to contain very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLC-PUFA) from the n-3 and n-6 series having 24-36 carbon atoms (C24-C36) and four to six double bonds. Recent interest in the role played by VLC-PUFA arose from the findings that a protein called elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids 4 (ELOVL4) is involved in their biosynthesis and that mutations in the ELOVL4 gene are associated with Stargardt-like macular dystrophy (STD3), a dominantly inherited juvenile macular degeneration leading to vision loss. The aim of the present study was to develop an HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method for the structural characterisation and the quantification of dipolyunsaturated PC molecular species containing VLC-PUFA and validate this methodology on retinas from bovines and human donors. Successful separation of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatidylserine (PS), PC, lyso-phosphatidylcholine (LPC) and sphingomyelin (SM) was achieved using a silica gel column and a gradient of hexane/isopropanol/water containing ammonium formate as a mobile phase. A complete structural characterisation of intact phosphatidylcholine species was obtained by collision-induced dissociation (CID) in the negative mode. Fatty acid composition and distribution can be clearly assigned based on the intensity of sn-2/sn-1 fragment ions. The PC species were characterised on bovine retina, 28 of which were dipolyunsaturated PC species containing one VLC-PUFA (C24-C36) with three to six double bonds. VLC-PUFA was always in the sn-1 position while PUFA at the sn-2 position was exclusively docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6n-3). Most of these VLC-PUFA-containing dipolyunsaturated PCs were detected and quantified in human retinas. The quantitative analysis of the different PC molecular species was performed in the positive mode using precursor ion scanning of m/z 184 and 14:0/14:0-PC and 24:0/24:0-PC as internal standards. The relationship between the MS peak intensities of different PC species and their carbon chain length was included for calibration. The main compounds represented were those having VLC-PUFA with 32 carbon atoms (C32:3, C32:4, C32:5 and C32:6) and 34 carbon atoms (C34:3, C34:4, C34:5 and C34:6). Dipolyunsaturated PCs with 36:5 and 36:6 were detected but in smaller quantities. In conclusion, this new HPLC-ESI-MS/MS method is sensitive and specific enough to structurally characterise and quantify all molecular PC species, including those esterified with VLC-PUFA. This technique is valuable for a precise characterisation of PC molecular species containing VLC-PUFA in retina and may be useful for a better understanding of the pathogenesis of STD3.     

Three-dimensional polarization-independent visible-frequency carpet invisibility cloak

We miniaturize all features in a previously introduced polarization-independent three-dimensional carpet invisibility cloak by more than a factor of 2. This leads to operation wavelengths in the visible. The structures are characterized by electron and optical microscopy. In contrast to our previous work at IR wavelengths, we can directly measure two-dimensional images at visible frequencies, perform control experiments from the backside, and compare the images with theory. We find excellent agreement. Furthermore, we study the wavelength dependence in the range from 900 nm down to 500 nm. Cloaking action deteriorates as the woodpile stop band at around 575 nm is approached.     

Requiem for the Miller–Tucker–Zemlin subtour elimination constraints?

The Miller–Tucker–Zemlin (MTZ) Subtour Elimination Constraints (SECs) and the improved version by Desrochers and Laporte (DL) have been and are still in regular use to model a variety of routing problems. This paper presents a systematic way of deriving inequalities that are more complicated than the MTZ and DL inequalities and that, in a certain way, “generalize” the underlying idea of the original inequalities. We present a polyhedral approach that studies and analyses the convex hull of feasible sets for small dimensions. This approach allows us to generate generalizations of the MTZ and DL inequalities, which are “good” in the sense that they define facets of these small polyhedra. It is well known that DL inequalities imply a subset of Dantzig–Fulkerson–Johnson (DFJ) SECs for two-node subsets. Through the approach presented, we describe a generalization of these inequalities which imply DFJ SECs for three-node subsets and show that generalizations for larger subsets are unlikely to exist. Our study presents a similar analysis with generalizations of MTZ inequalities and their relation with the lifted circuit inequalities for three node subsets.     

Urea dimethacrylates functionalized with bisphosphonate/bisphosphonic acid for improved dental materials

Incorporation of bisphosphonate/bisphosphonic acid groups in dental monomer structures should increase interaction of these monomers with dental tissue as these groups have strong affinity for hydroxyapatite. Therefore, new urea dimethacrylates functionalized with bisphosphonate (1a, 1b) and bisphosphonic acid (2a, 2b) groups are synthesized and evaluated for dental applications. Monomers 1a and 1b are synthesized from 2‐isocyanatoethyl methacrylate (IEM) and two bisphosphonated amines (BPA1 and BPA2), prepared as reported elsewhere. Selective dealkylation of the bisphosphonate ester groups of 1a and 1b using trimethylsilyl bromide (TMSBr) gives monomers (2a and 2b) with bisphosphonic acid functionality. X‐ray diffractometer (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses of monomer‐treated HAP particles show that 2a induces formation of stable monomer‐calcium salts, similar to 10‐methacryloyloxydecyl dihydrogen phosphate (MDP), with higher chemical interaction than 2b. The photopolymerization studies indicate good copolymerizability with commercial dental monomers. In vitro studies on NIH 3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblast cells have clearly shown that the tested monomers (1b and 2b) are not toxic according to the MTT standards. All these properties make these monomers suitable as biocompatible cross‐linkers/adhesives for dental applications. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 3195–3204     

Construction of a new family of Bernstein‐Kantorovich operators

In the present paper, we construct a new sequence of Bernstein‐Kantorovich operators depending on a parameter α. The uniform convergence of the operators and rate of convergence in local and global sense in terms of first‐ and second‐order modulus of continuity are studied. Some graphs and numerical results presenting the advantages of our construction are obtained. The last section is devoted to bivariate generalization of Bernstein‐Kantorovich operators and their approximation behaviors.     

Viscous dissipation effect on heat transfer characteristics of rectangular microchannels under slip flow regime and H1 boundary conditions

Viscous dissipation effect on heat transfer characteristics of a rectangular microchannel is studied. Flow is governed by the Navier–Stokes equations with the slip flow and temperature jump boundary conditions. Integral transform technique is applied to derive the temperature distribution and Nusselt number. The velocity distribution is taken from literature. The solution method is verified for the case where viscous dissipation is neglected. It is found that, the viscous dissipation is negligible for gas flows in microchannels, since the contribution of this effect on Nu number is about 1%. However, this effect should be taken into account for much more viscous flows, such as liquid flows. Neglecting this effect for a flat microchannel with an aspect ratio of 0.1 for Br=0.04 underestimates the Nu number about 5%.     

Investigation of new bifunctional agents: D-Penicillamine

Somatostatin inhibits the release of growth hormone (somatotropin) from the Anterior Pituitary. The main use of derivatives of somatostatin is to diagnose growth hormone problems and to use against some forms of cancer which involve growth hormone. Also somatostatin suppresses gastric acid secretion, gallbladder contractions, and pancreatic enzyme secretion. The aim of the current study is to investigate new bifunctional agents for labeling with ^99mTc. Therefore D-Penicillamine was used as a bifunctional agent and compared to DTPA in the labeling with ^99mTc. Quality controls were established using thin layer radio chromatography (TLRC) and electrophoresis techniques. In addition, high performance liquid radio chromatography (HPLRC) was also performed for elimination of possible uncertainties. The radiolabeled complexes maintained their stabilities throughout the study. The results obtained showed that ^99mTc-D-Penicillamine-somatostatin is a promising potential radiopharm aceutical and an alternative of ^99mTc-DTPA-somatostatin for in vivo and in vitro applications.     

Symplectic tori in rational elliptic surfaces

Let E(1)_p denote the rational elliptic surface with a single multiple fiber f_p of multiplicity p. We construct an infinite family of homologous non-isotopic symplectic tori representing the primitive 2-dimensional homology class [f_p] in E(1)_p when p>1. As a consequence, we get infinitely many non-isotopic symplectic tori in the fiber class of the rational elliptic surface . We also show how these tori can be non-isotopically embedded as homologous symplectic submanifolds in other symplectic 4-manifolds.