Teaching Construction Sciences With the Integration of BIM to Undergraduate Architecture Students

This study aims to test two hypotheses: teaching building information modeling (BIM) in relation to construction science provides students with a remarkable understanding of the nature of construction science (Hypothesis 1), and if the student has positive attitude toward the use of the BIM program, then efficiency by which construction science is taught by its means is improved (Hypothesis 2). Results and process of a case study with a novel teaching methodology were discussed in terms of the benefits of the students. A questionnaire study was conducted on the student group with which the case study was performed to test each student’s attitude. Results were evaluated statistically. When BIM is integrated with the teaching of basic construction courses within architecture degree programs, the students understood the building system principles simply and effectively. As a result of the statistical analysis, the students find the applied method effective. Moreover, their attitude toward BIM affects the process

The Use of Metaphors as a Parametric Design Teaching Model: A Case Study

Teaching methodologies for parametric design are being researched all over the world, since there is a growing demand for computer programming logic and its fabrication process in architectural education. The computer programming courses in architectural education are usually done in a very short period of time, and so students have no chance to create their own designs. This paper describes a course in which metaphors are used as a teaching methodology in parametric design, in order to let students create their own designs and learn the basic elements of parametric programming language in a short period of time with deductive reasoning. In this course, it was intended to teach visual programming language to undergraduates. Advancing under the metaphor theoretical framework, the students obtained experience in achieving form-finding process for their projects in accord with the certain constraints. Using this methodology, the students, who experienced all design stages from 3D modeling to the digital fabrication, additionally were able to develop their ability for versatile thinking and the use of more than one tool in combination, in the early years of their architectural education

Lateral transshipment of slow moving critical medical items

This research studies lateral transshipment of critical medical items that have low demands. Due to the high prices of medical items and their limited shelf lives, the expirations contribute significantly to the current prohibitively high cost of the healthcare system. Lateral transshipment between hospitals in a medical system provides opportunities to reduce the expiration costs. This paper studies the decision rule for lateral transshipment in a two-hospital system and extends the rule for the multiple-hospital cases. The decision rule takes the myopic best action by assuming no transshipments will be performed in the future. Numerical experiments demonstrate significant cost savings and the decision rule has a small gap from the upper bound of the total saving. The savings are more considerable when the difference of demand rates at different locations is large and the life time of the medical item is not too long or too short

Contrasting Wind Regimes Cause Differences in Primary Production in the Black Sea Eastern and Western Gyres.

12-year time series of SeaWiFS chlorophyll a (Chl-a), primary production (PP), sea surface temperature (SST), and meteorological wind speed were used to examine decadal changes in these parameters in the eastern and western Gyres of the Black Sea. In both Gyres, low wind speeds and SST led to higher PP. After 2004, there was a progressive decrease in PP and Chl-a, which co-varied with increasing SST. Chl-a and PP were significantly higher in the western Gyre compared to the eastern Gyre, especially from 1998 to 2004. Wind speed negatively correlated with PP in both Gyres, but the higher wind speed prior to relaxation in the western Gyre led to higher PP during spring and autumn. Variability in annual PP in both Gyres was coupled to fluctuations in the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI), which affected the wind regime more in the eastern than in the western Gyre. The data suggest that localised wind regimes in the western gyre that are uncoupled from MEI, sustains higher PP in this area

Effects of Different Types Strength Exercises with Thera-Band® on Oxidative Stress and DNA Damage

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of both static and dynamic strength trainings on oxidative stress and DNA damage in elite boxers. 19 elite male boxers participated in the study. Boxers were instructed to perform strength exercises 3 days a week for 8 weeks. Blood samples were taken before exercises (resting), after the first exercise (acute) and after 8 weeks following the last exercise (chronic). MDA, SOD, GPx and 8-OHdG levels of blood were examined. Statistical analyses were carried out using the SPSS 22 for Windows. The data were found to not be distributed normally. Thus, Friedman, Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney U tests were used. The results were evaluated using an alpha level of .05. In the dynamic strength exercise group, there was no significance at GPx, however MDA, SOD and 8-OHdG levels decreased in 8 weeks. In static strength exercise group, although there was no significance at SOD, GPx and 8-OHdG, MDA levels decreased both after a single session and in 8 weeks. In addition, significant difference was found between dynamic and static exercise groups at SOD, GPx and 8-OHdG levels in pre-exercise and at 8-OHdG levels after 8 weeks.  Dynamic strength exercises with Thera-Band are effective on MDA, SOD and 8-OHdG chronically, static strength exercises are effective on MDA both acutely and chronically. Neither dynamic nor static strength exercises are not effective on GPx both acutely and chronically

Seasonal changes of invertebrate fauna associated with Cystoseira barbata facies of Southeastern Black Sea coast

This research was carried out to determine the invertebrate fauna associated with Cystoseira barbata facies distributed in the upper-infralittoral zone of the Southeastern Black Sea coasts and their bioecological features. The investigations were seasonally performed at depths of 0 to 3 m in 5 different stations chosen in the Southeastern Black Sea from July 2005 to May 2006. As a result of the study, a total of 6123 specimens belonging to 38 species and 4 taxonomic groups were identified. Arthropoda was the dominant group in terms of number of species (55.3% of the total of phylum) and number of individuals (83.9% of the number total individuals). With regard to frequency index, 14 species were defined as continious, 8 species of common and 16 species as rare. Idotea metallica is reported for the first time from the Black Sea coast of Turkey in the present study.Keywords: Seasonal changes, invertebrate fauna, Cystoseira barbata, Black Sea, Turke

The Use of Metaphors as a Parametric Design Teaching Model

Teaching methodologies for parametric design are being researched all over the world, since there is a growing demand for computer programming logic and its fabrication process in architectural education. The computer programming courses in architectural education are usually done in a very short period of time, and so students have no chance to create their own designs. This paper describes a course in which metaphors are used as a teaching methodology in parametric design, in order to let students create their own designs and learn the basic elements of parametric programming language in a short period of time with deductive reasoning. In this course, it was intended to teach visual programming language to undergraduates. Advancing under the metaphor theoretical framework, the students obtained experience in achieving form-finding process for their projects in accord with the certain constraints. Using this methodology, the students, who experienced all design stages from 3D modeling to the digital fabrication, additionally were able to develop their ability for versatile thinking and the use of more than one tool in combination, in the early years of their architectural education

The Evaluation of the Relationship between the Use of Multi-Software and the Students’ Attitude towards Computers and Technology in Undergraduate Architectural Design Studio Education

Different computer programs used in the architectural design process serve different purposes. However, the number of computer programs used is increasing at a rate that designers find it difficult to adapt to. Accordingly, the possibility arises to use more than one computer program during the architectural design process, and it is important to make the correct choice of which ones are most appropriate to use. This is also true for undergraduate students of architecture, and hence a pilot study was made, which focused on the use of multi-software within the scope of the architectural design studio. The relationship between the students' use of multi-software and their attitude toward computer and technology was evaluated statistically, by means of Pearson product moment correlations. The results showed that the attitude of the students toward computers and technology influences how they use multi-software

Microbial plankton communities in the coastal southeastern Black Sea: Biomass, composition and trophic interactions

We investigated biomass and composition of the pico-, nano- and microplankton communities in a coastal station of the southeastern Black Sea during 2011. We also examined trophic interactions within these communities from size-fractionated dilution experiments in February, June and December. Autotrophic and heterotrophic biomasses showed similar seasonal trends, with a peak in June, but heterotrophs dominated throughout the year. Autotrophic biomass was mainly comprised by nanoflagellates and diatoms in the first half of the year, and by dinoflagellates and Synechococcus spp. in the second half. Heterotrophic biomass was mostly dominated by heterotrophic bacteria, followed by nanoflagellates and microzooplankton. Dilution experiments suggest that nano- and microzooplankton were significant consumers of autotrophs and heterotrophic bacteria. More than 100% of bacterial production was consumed by grazers in all experiments, while 46%, 21% and 30% of daily primary production were consumed in February, June and December, respectively. In February, autotrophs were the main carbon source, but in December, it was heterotrophic bacteria. An intermediate situation was observed in June, with similar carbon flows from autotrophs and heterotrophic bacteria. Size-fraction dilution experiments suggested that heterotrophic nanoflagellates are an important link between the high heterotrophic bacterial biomass and microzooplankton. In summary, these results indicate that nano- and microzooplankton were responsible for comprising a significant fraction of total microbial plankton biomass, standing stocks, growth and grazing processes. This suggests that in 2011, the microbial food web was an important compartment of the planktonic food web in the coastal southeastern Black Sea