Measuring Fiscal Sustainability for Practical Use in Short-Term Policy Making

This study aims to assess the gross domestic debt sustainability of Turkey through construction of a risk index suitable for short-term policy making. Construction of the risk index follows a methodology similar to the Garcia and Rigobon’s Risk Management Approach (2004). However, unlike most fiscal sustainability studies carried out for Turkey, our index is based on a finite time horizon approach and emphasizes the importance of having a forward-looking measure of fiscal dynamics rather than a test based on past behavior. Within this framework, the main contribution of this paper is to introduce the uncertainty and finite horizon approach into the analysis of the fiscal sustainability of Turkey. A vector-autoregression (VAR) model is used primarily to estimate the joint dynamics of the related macro-variables for the 1990:1-2007:9 periods. Then, the simulated fiscal variables are used to construct the risk index. This index is based on a comparison of a target level of the debt ratio with a simulated debt ratio. Results indicate that the fiscal stance of Turkey has a sustainable outlook through the end of 2007:9.Turkey, Fiscal Sustainability, Monte Carlo Simulation, Vector Auto-Regression

IDMoB: IoT Data Marketplace on Blockchain

Today, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are the powerhouse of data generation with their ever-increasing numbers and widespread penetration. Similarly, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions are getting integrated to all kinds of services, making products significantly more "smarter". The centerpiece of these technologies is "data". IoT device vendors should be able keep up with the increased throughput and come up with new business models. On the other hand, AI/ML solutions will produce better results if training data is diverse and plentiful. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based, decentralized and trustless data marketplace where IoT device vendors and AI/ML solution providers may interact and collaborate. By facilitating a transparent data exchange platform, access to consented data will be democratized and the variety of services targeting end-users will increase. Proposed data marketplace is implemented as a smart contract on Ethereum blockchain and Swarm is used as the distributed storage platform.Comment: Presented at Crypto Valley Conference on Blockchain Technology (CVCBT 2018), 20-22 June 2018 - published version may diffe

Speech file compression by eliminating unvoiced/silence components

The main objective of this study is to have the noise component of a speech signal eliminated and compressed by storing the locations and durations of silence regions. The separation between voiced, unvoiced, and silence regions is done by using the Short-Time Energy (STE) and Zero Crossing Rate (ZCR) methodologies. All operations in this study have been performed by using the User Interface (UI) developed on MATLAB®. These operations include voice recording, playing the recording, eliminating the unwanted regions, playing the modified recording, saving original and compressed files, and loading the recording compressed

Behavioral Modelling Of Sar Adc

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2015Thesis (M.Sc.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Instıtute of Science and Technology, 2015Son yirmi yılda, elektronik sistemlerde kullanılan tümdevre sayısı giderek artmı ̧stır. Bunun sebebi, CMOS teknolojisinindeki geli ̧smeler sonucunda daha yüksek performasa sahip tümdevrelerin daha ucuz fıyata daha küçük alanda üretilmesine olanak saglamasıdır. Ayrıca, bu geli ̧smeler karma ̧sık sayısal i ̧saret i ̧sleme tekniklerinin ̆ de ortaya çıkmasına yardım etmi ̧stir. Böylece analog ve sayısal sistemler iç içe girmeye ba ̧slamı ̧slardır. Tüm i ̧saretlerin analog i ̧saretler oldugu dünyamızla sayısal i ̧saretlerin i ̧slendi ̆ gi ̆ dünya arasındaki baglantı analog-dijital çeviriciler ile sa ̆ glanmaktadır. Analog-dijital ̆ çeviriciler (ADC), dijital i ̧saret i ̧sleme tekniklerinin geli ̧smesi ile birlikte oldukça yaygın hale gelmi ̧stir. Analog bir i ̧saret analog-dijital çevirici sayesinde dijital koda dönü ̧stürülmekte ve i ̧slenmek üzere dijital sinyal i ̧sleme bloguna gönderilmektedir. ̆ Analog-dijital çevirici dönü ̧stürme i ̧slemi sırasında sırasıyla örtü ̧sme önleyici süzgeç, örnekleme, kuantalama ve kodlama fonksiyonlarını gerçekle ̧stirmektedir. Öncelikle giri ̧s i ̧sareti dı ̧sındaki tüm i ̧saretleri süzmek için örtü ̧sme önleyici süzgeç kullanılır. Daha sonra bu i ̧saret belli bir periyotta i ̧slenmke üzere örneklenir. Örneklenen bu i ̧saretin hangi quantalama aralıgına dü ̧stü ̆ günü quantalama blo ̆ gu belirler. Son olarak ̆ da bu i ̧saret sayısal bir kod olarak kar ̧sımıza çıkar Ba ̧slıca ADC yapıları incelendiginde: SAR ADC, Delta Sigma ADC, Flash ADC ̆ kar ̧sımıza çıkmaktadır. Her bir ADC yapısı belli bir mühendislik problemini çözebilmek adına olu ̧sturulmu ̧slardır. Diger ADC türleri ile kıyaslandı ̆ gında, SAR ̆ ADC orta ve yüksek çözünürlük ile beraber dü ̧sük güç tüketimi saglamayabilmesi, ̆ tercih sebebi olmasını saglamı ̧stır. Ayrıca SAR algoritmasının basitli ̆ gi sebebiyle yapı ̆ kolaylıkla anla ̧sılabilmektedir. Basit bir SAR ADC yapısında örnekleme blogu, kar ̧sıla ̧stırıcı blo ̆ gu, SAR loji ̆ gini ̆ gerçekle ̧stirecek sayılsal devre ve en önemlisi dahili bir dijital-analog çevirici (DAC) bulunmaktadır. ̇Ilk olarak, analog giri ̧s i ̧sareti örneklme blogunda örneklenmektedir. ̆ Daha sonra örneklemi ̧s giri ̧s i ̧sareti kar ̧sıla ̧stırıcı blogunda dahili DAC çıkı ̧sı ile ̆ kar ̧sıla ̧stırılır. Bu ilk kar ̧sılatırmada DAC orta seviyedeki kod degerindedir. Buna ̆ göre en önemli bit degeri hesaplanır ve DAC yeni de ̆ gerine yerle ̧stirilir. DAC'ın sahip ̆ oldugu eleman sayısı kadar bu i ̧slem devam eder. Tüm elemanlar için kar ̧sıla ̧stırma ̆ yapıldıgında çıkı ̧s i ̧sareti hazırlanmı ̧s olmaktadır. ̆ aynı bloklardan olu ̧smaktadır. Bu bloklara ek olarak bir de kuvvetlendirici blogu ̆ bulunmaktadır. ̇Ilk SAR dönü ̧sümü tamamlandıgı zaman, giri ̧s i ̧sareti ve nihai DAC ̆ degeri arasındaki fark bize quantalama hatasını vermektedir. Bu hata kuvvetlendirici ̆ blogu sayesinde kuvvetlendirilerek tekrardan bir SAR dönü ̧sümü yapmak üzere ̆ örnekleme bloguna gönderilir. ̆ ve ikinci SAR dönü ̧sümlerinde elde edilen sayısal degerler birle ̧stirmek üzere sayısal ̆ hata bloguna yollanır. Bu blok bize nihai sayısal çıkı ̧s i ̧saretini verecektir. ̆ Dahili DAC içerisinde kullanılan kapasite elemanlarının uyumu, SAR ADC perfor- mansını belirleyen en önemli etkendir. Tüm i ̧slemler iki kapasite arasındaki orana göre gerçekle ̧stirildikleri için eleman degerlerindeki saçılma do ̆ grudan performası ̆ dü ̧sürmektedir. CMOS teknlojisindeki geli ̧smeler sonucu daha küçük alanda uyumu daha yüksek kapasiteler geçeklenebilmektedir. Böylece SAR ADC ile daha yüksek çözünürlük degerlerine gidilebilmektedir. ̆ Proses teknolojisinin geli ̧smesi ile beraber kapasitif DAC daha küçük alanda daha uyumlu elemanlarla gerçeklenebilmektedir. Böylece SAR ADC ile daha yüksek çözünürlük degerlerine gidilebilinmektedir. Fakat daha yüksek çözünürlükle beraber ̆ daha yüksek hızlara gidilmek istenildiginde SAR ADC yapısındaki di ̆ ger blokların ̆ da performansa etkileri ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu etkilerin nelerden kaynaklandıgı ve ̆ performansı ne kadar etkiledikleri önemli bir soru haline gelmektedir. Geli ̧sen teknolojiyle beraber, tümdevre yapılarını incelemek için kullanılan programlar da oldukça ilerlemi ̧stir. Fakat günümüzün karma ̧sık elektronik devleri incelerken tasarımın her a ̧samasında bu programları kullanmak oldukça fazla zaman kaybına yol açmaktadır. Tümdevre yapılarındaki transistor sayısının artması, tümdevreyi analiz etmek için kullanılan bu programların daha yava ̧s çalı ̧smasına sebep olmaktadır. Günümüzde kullanılan en basit bir tümdevremin bile çok sayıda transistor içerdigi ̆ dü ̧sünülürse, karma ̧sık bir tümdevre yapısının transistor seviyesindeki analizinin daha yava ̧s olacagı açıktır. Bir devrenin simulasyon süresi günler mertebesinde ̆ sürebilmektedir. Analog-dijital çeviriciler karma ̧sık tümdevre yapılarından biridir ve bu yüzden tasarıma transistor seviyesi yerine blok seviyesinde ba ̧slamak akıllıca bir ba ̧slangıç olmaktadır. Böylece istenilen performası saglayabilmek için tümdevreyi olu ̧sturan ̆ blokların ihtiyaç duydugu tasarım parametreleri belirlenmi ̧s olur. Tasarım sırasında ̆ tasarlanan bloklara ait parametreler, model içerisine yerle ̧stirilerek istenilen hedefe ne kadar yakla ̧sıldıgı da ara ̧stıralabilir. Son olarak tasarımı bitmi ̧s bir tümdevrenin ̆ parametreleri yine model içerine eklenerek performansı en çok etkileyen blokların hangileri oldugu hakkında fikir sahibi olunabilir. Matlab ve Simulink ortamında ̆ kurulan modeller hızlı ve dogru sonuçlar vererek, tasarım öncesinde ve sonrasında ̆ tasarım parametrelerinin belirlenmesinde ve varolan yapı hakkında bilgi edinmede kullanılabilirler. Bu çalı ̧smada, iki adımlı SAR ADC mimarisinin davranı ̧ssal modellenmesi, devredeki idealsizlikler dahil edilerek incelenmi ̧stir. Tüm bloklar Simulink ortamında tasarlanmı ̧stır ve bloklara ait tüm parametreler degi ̧sken olarak kabul edilmi ̧stir. ̆ Böylece olu ̧sturulan model herhangi bir hızdaki ve herhangi bir çözünürlükteki SAR ADC yapısını gerçekle ̧stirmek için kullanılabilmektedir. SAR ADC yapısındaki en önemli blok olan kapasitif DAC analizi için yogun bir ̆ çaba harcanmı ̧stır. Ek olarak daha dü ̧sük alanda aynı fonksiyonu gerçeklemek için kullanılan zayıflatıcı kapasitenin etkisi de incelenmi ̧stir. Her bir kapasite elamanın saçılması ve parazitik kapasitelerin etkisi de bu analize dahil edilmi ̧stir. Bir sonraki önemli blok olan kar ̧sıla ̧stırıcı içinse yükselme ve dü ̧sme zamanı, giri ̧ste alıglanabilecek en küçük gerilim ve dengesizlik gerilimi modellenmi ̧stir. ̇Iki a ̧samalı SAR yapısı kuvvetlendiriciye ihtiyaç duydugu için bu blok da modellenmi ̧stir. ̆ Ayrıca tüm i ̧slemler saat i ̧saretine göre gerçekle ̧stirildikleri için saat i ̧saretinin sahip olabilecegi idealsizlikler de modellenmi ̧stir. Son olarak her bir referans geriliminin ̆ etkisini modellemek için degi ̧skenler kullanılmı ̧stır. ̆ Olu ̧sturalan model sonuçları ile ölçüm sonuçlarının tutarlı oldugu gözlenmi ̧stir. ̆ Laboratuvar ortamında tamamlanması saatler süren ölçümler kurulan model ile hızlı bir ̧sekilde elde edilebilmektedir. Sonuç olarak, gerçekle ̧stirilen davranı ̧ssal model ile SAR ADC performansı kısa zaman diliminde dogru bir ̧sekilde inceleme fırsatı ̆ sunmaktadır.During the last two decades, the usage of integrated circuits have been increased in modern electronic systems due to development of the process technology while offering low cost and high performance. Also it leads to powerful digital signal processing techniques that require an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to communicate with analog world. Nowadays, ADCs (Analog to Digital Converters) become very popular with the increase of mixed signal applications in electronic. Moreover, energy consumption have been the most significant topic in the last decade. Amongst various ADC architectures, SAR (Successive Approximation Register) ADC becomes most common ADC architecture as it is suitable for low power, medium to high resolution and medium speed applications. Previously, Capacitive DAC array was the most critical block of SAR ADC, due to the matching of the elements in the DAC that determines the total noise contribution and linearity of SAR ADC. Developing technology gives an opportunity to implement the DAC with smaller area and better matching and as a result it is possible to reach higher resolution with SAR ADC. However other non-idealities of the blocks in SAR ADC must be taking into account to attain higher resolution together with high speed. The increase of transistor number in the circuit due to the development of process technology cause long transistor-level simulation time that can be take days to complete. However, Matlab or Simulink models offer fast and accurate results that can be used to determine design specifications or to investigate exist architecture. In this thesis, complete behavioral model of a two-step SAR ADC architecture is studied in Matlab Simulink environment to analyze non-idealities of capacitive DAC, comparator, opamp, clock signal and reference voltages by using charge equations that are derived to find transfer functions of the SAR-ADC. Since all block parameters are set as a variable, it is possible to use model for any Nbit SAR ADC architecture with small changes. Moreover the model shows promising results with respect to measurement results of the SAR-ADC that is also studied in the thesis. As a consequence, accomplished model is a powerful tool that helps to understand basic and complex behaviour of the SAR ADC and provides information about limiting factors for ADC in a short time period compared to transistor-level simulations.Yüksek LisansM.Sc

Commentary on Narrow Bridge Games and Their Rescue of Rational Constraints in Moral Contractualism

Commentary on Narrow Bridge Games and Their Rescue of Rational Constraints in Moral Contractualis

Efficacy of seven Turkish diatomaceous earths against Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchninae) on stored chickpea: Presentation

In this study, insecticidal efficacy of seven different local diatomaceous earths (DE) obtained from different deposits in Turkey together with two commercial DEs, Silicosec® (Biofa AG- Germany) and Desect® (Ep Naturals- America) against Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchninae) an important pest of stored chickpea at five different concentrations (100, 300, 500, 1000 and 1500 ppm) was evaluated. The local DEs were coded as BGN, BHN, AG2N, AC2N, CB2N, CCN, FB2N. Mortality of the adults was assessed after 1, 3, 5 and 7 days of exposure, and consequently progeny (F1) production on treated chickpeas was recorded 42 days later. The tests were carried out under laboratory conditions of 25±1 °C, 55±5 % R.H. in a dark place. The most effective DEs after 1 day of exposure were CCN, AG2N and BHN causing 75%, 59%, 58% mortalities, respectively at 1500 ppm concentration. Silicosec®, Desect®, BGN, AC2N, applied at 1500 ppm concentration achieved 98-100% mortality of C.maculatus after 7 days of exposure, showing similar high insecticidal efficacy. The CCN, BHN, AG2N and CB2N caused 97-99% reduction in progeny (F1) production. Generally, increasing concentration significantly reduced the progeny production. In conclusion, this study has shown that three Turkish DEs, namelyCCN, AG2N and BHN highly toxic to C. maculatus after 3 days of exposurein comparison with commercial DEs Silicosec® and Desect®. These local DEs could be used in the management of pests of stored chickpea.In this study, insecticidal efficacy of seven different local diatomaceous earths (DE) obtained from different deposits in Turkey together with two commercial DEs, Silicosec® (Biofa AG- Germany) and Desect® (Ep Naturals- America) against Callosobruchus maculatus (F.) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae: Bruchninae) an important pest of stored chickpea at five different concentrations (100, 300, 500, 1000 and 1500 ppm) was evaluated. The local DEs were coded as BGN, BHN, AG2N, AC2N, CB2N, CCN, FB2N. Mortality of the adults was assessed after 1, 3, 5 and 7 days of exposure, and consequently progeny (F1) production on treated chickpeas was recorded 42 days later. The tests were carried out under laboratory conditions of 25±1 °C, 55±5 % R.H. in a dark place. The most effective DEs after 1 day of exposure were CCN, AG2N and BHN causing 75%, 59%, 58% mortalities, respectively at 1500 ppm concentration. Silicosec®, Desect®, BGN, AC2N, applied at 1500 ppm concentration achieved 98-100% mortality of C.maculatus after 7 days of exposure, showing similar high insecticidal efficacy. The CCN, BHN, AG2N and CB2N caused 97-99% reduction in progeny (F1) production. Generally, increasing concentration significantly reduced the progeny production. In conclusion, this study has shown that three Turkish DEs, namelyCCN, AG2N and BHN highly toxic to C. maculatus after 3 days of exposurein comparison with commercial DEs Silicosec® and Desect®. These local DEs could be used in the management of pests of stored chickpea

Naturally existing Beauveria on the surface of stored wheat kernels, and their pathogenicity on Rhyzopertha dominica and Sitophilus oryzae adults: Poster

Entomopathogenic fungi have been investigated to control stored product pests, as an alternative strategy to chemical insecticides. Although many studies evaluated isolates from various sources, few studies surveyed fungi naturally infecting stored product pests, revealing predominantly Beauveria isolates. This study aimed to reveal the amount of Beauveria carried on the surface of stored wheat kernels, and their pathogenicity against Rhyzopertha dominica and Sitophilus oryzae adults. Sixteen wheat samples from different storage facilities in four cities were examined for existence of Beauveria. One-hundred g of wheat was washed in 100 mL of 2% Tween80 solution. After increasing concentration of possible fungi by centrifugation, the liquid was spread on medium with dodine and monitored at 25±2°C. Nine of the isolates were tested for pathogenicity at 500 ppm (w/w) at 25±2°C, 65±5% r.h. in darkness with five replicates. While only four samples did not have Beauveria, others had 17-2992 cfu/100 g wheat. Six samples had 17-50, four samples 150-858, one sample 1625 and one had 2992 cfu/100 g wheat. Mortalities against R. dominica adults ranged between 5-86% and 32-100% in 7 and 14 days, respectively. Mortality of S. oryzae ranged from 3-45% and 8-83% in 7 and 14 days, respectively. This study demonstrated that wheat kernels can naturally carry Beauveria with various levels of pathogenicity. Potential naturally occurring entomopathogenic fungi can be isolated directly from stored commodities to be evaluated as biological control agents for stored product pest control.Entomopathogenic fungi have been investigated to control stored product pests, as an alternative strategy to chemical insecticides. Although many studies evaluated isolates from various sources, few studies surveyed fungi naturally infecting stored product pests, revealing predominantly Beauveria isolates. This study aimed to reveal the amount of Beauveria carried on the surface of stored wheat kernels, and their pathogenicity against Rhyzopertha dominica and Sitophilus oryzae adults. Sixteen wheat samples from different storage facilities in four cities were examined for existence of Beauveria. One-hundred g of wheat was washed in 100 mL of 2% Tween80 solution. After increasing concentration of possible fungi by centrifugation, the liquid was spread on medium with dodine and monitored at 25±2°C. Nine of the isolates were tested for pathogenicity at 500 ppm (w/w) at 25±2°C, 65±5% r.h. in darkness with five replicates. While only four samples did not have Beauveria, others had 17-2992 cfu/100 g wheat. Six samples had 17-50, four samples 150-858, one sample 1625 and one had 2992 cfu/100 g wheat. Mortalities against R. dominica adults ranged between 5-86% and 32-100% in 7 and 14 days, respectively. Mortality of S. oryzae ranged from 3-45% and 8-83% in 7 and 14 days, respectively. This study demonstrated that wheat kernels can naturally carry Beauveria with various levels of pathogenicity. Potential naturally occurring entomopathogenic fungi can be isolated directly from stored commodities to be evaluated as biological control agents for stored product pest control

FlexiAST: Flexibility is What AST Needs

The objective of this work is to give patch-size flexibility to Audio Spectrogram Transformers (AST). Recent advancements in ASTs have shown superior performance in various audio-based tasks. However, the performance of standard ASTs degrades drastically when evaluated using different patch sizes from that used during training. As a result, AST models are typically re-trained to accommodate changes in patch sizes. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes a training procedure to provide flexibility to standard AST models without architectural changes, allowing them to work with various patch sizes at the inference stage - FlexiAST. This proposed training approach simply utilizes random patch size selection and resizing of patch and positional embedding weights. Our experiments show that FlexiAST gives similar performance to standard AST models while maintaining its evaluation ability at various patch sizes on different datasets for audio classification tasks.Comment: Interspeech 202

Lethal effect of Turkish diatomaceous earth (Bgn-1 ) agaınst adults of German cockroaches (Blatella germanıca L.): Presentation

In this study, mortality effects of BGN-1 which is local diatomaceous earths, were investigated against adults of German cockroach (Blatella gemanica (L.)) on concrete, ceramic floor tile and laminate flooring. On these three different surfaces, B. germanica adults were exposed to BGN-1 diatomaceous earth at the doses of 2.5, 5, 10, 20 g/m2 along 6 days. In all surface applications of BGN-1 diatomaceous earth, exposure time and dose caused significant effect on mortality rates of B. germanica adults. It was determined that BGN-1 coded Turkish diatomaceous earth has the lowest mortality effect on all application surfaces at the dose of 2.5 g/m2. 2.5 g/m2 BGN-1 caused 100 % mortality after 6 days concrete surface and caused 100 % mortality at the end of the fourth day on ceramic floor tile and laminate flooring. On the other hand, doses of 5 and 10 g/m2 of BGN-1 caused 100% B. germanica mortality on all surfaces at the end of the second day, while the highest dose of 20 g /m2 of BGN-1 reached 100% B. germanica mortality at the end of the first day on all application surfaces. In general, the mortality activity of BGN-1 diatomites against B. germanica adults was found to be similar on all three surfaces. At the end of this study, local diatomaceous earth coded BGN-1 was found to be good alternatives for controlling B. germanica which is a medical pest insect