Determination of the dam axis permeability for the design and the optimization of grout curtain: An example from Orhanlar Dam (Kütahya-Pazarlar)

Rural projects become an important issue considering the rapid increase of population in Turkey. Alongside the contribution to the national economy, dams serve as an environmental structure, which are utilized in flood prevention, sustainable energy, fighting with forest fire and recreation. However, dam construction must be well planned and projected to minimize the unexpected events such as water leakage. This study comprise the geotechnical studies and the design of the planned grout curtain in Orhanlar Dam (Kütahya/Pazarlar). In this context, field and laboratory studies was realized in Orhanlar Dam axis and reservoir area. Within the scope of field studies, engineering geology map was generated, a suitable axis location was specified for the dam and drilling and in-situ testing was realized. Within the field studies, the joint conditions of the geological units under the dam axis and its effect on permeability was observed. For the geotechnical purposes drilling works performed during the planning stage, 5 boreholes total 166 m was realized on dam axis, 1 borehole total 10 m was realized on cofferdam, 1 borehole total 10 m was realized on diversion tunnel and 1 borehole total 10 m was realized on spillway. To determine the permeability profile on dam axis and design the grout curtain, Lugeon tests in Dağardı ophioloitic melange units observed in dam axis, falling head permeability tests in alluviums observed in thalveg and slope debris observed in right abutment were performed. As a result of these studies geotechnical information about the permeability of Orhanlar Dam was collected and the grout curtain hole was designed

Automated Lane Change Decision Making using Deep Reinforcement Learning in Dynamic and Uncertain Highway Environment

Autonomous lane changing is a critical feature for advanced autonomous driving systems, that involves several challenges such as uncertainty in other driver's behaviors and the trade-off between safety and agility. In this work, we develop a novel simulation environment that emulates these challenges and train a deep reinforcement learning agent that yields consistent performance in a variety of dynamic and uncertain traffic scenarios. Results show that the proposed data-driven approach performs significantly better in noisy environments compared to methods that rely solely on heuristics.Comment: Accepted to IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference - ITSC 201

DEVELOPMENT OF A SOFTWARE BASED SYSTEM TO APPLY TURKISH BUILDING ENERGY PERFORMANCE DIRECTIVE

This work is about the software named BEP-TR (Building Energy Performance -Turkey), which is developed upon request from Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization to apply to build energy performance directive nationwide to improve the energy efficiency of buildings in Turkey. The directive requires that each building in the country must have an energy performance certificate (EPC) indicating the ratings of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of the related building. BEP-TR software is designed mainly to issue EPC for buildings considering each phase of EPC preparation process and tasks of associated institutions and individuals. BEP-TR is mainly composed of two software applications called BEP-BUY and BEP-IS. BEP-BUY is a desktop application, which allows the user to design a building stored in XML project file and calculate its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission to determine its corresponding ratings. EPC application for the designed building, which meets standards required by government is done by sending the project file of the building through BEP-BUY to the BEP-IS. BEP-IS is an internet based software which is under the control of the ministry. BEP-IS confirms the calculations made for the building using the received project file and initiates the process of preparing EPC. BEP-IS provides users who take part in this process interfaces designed as web pages. Users and their authorizations are managed by fully authorized users defined for the ministry through BEP-IS. Besides BEP-IS stores and reports data related to processes and users. There are two other modules called library and calculation which are embedded in both BEP-BUY and BEP-IS. Library module stores the data related to structural materials, which are determined to be usable in building construction. Calculation module contains the national calculation method developed to calculate greenhouse emission and energy consumption of a building using properties of materials selected from library module. In this study, as an example, a building is designed and its energy consumption is calculated using BEP-BUY

Enhanced Second Harmonic Generation from Coupled Asymmetric Plasmonic Metal Nanostructures

We show that second harmonic generation can be enhanced by Fano resonant coupling of asymmetric plasmonic metal nanostructures. We develop a theoretical model examining the effects of electromagnetic interaction between two metal nanostructures on the second harmonic generation. We compare the second harmonic generation efficiency of a single plasmonic metal nanostructure with that of two coupled ones. We show that second harmonic generation from a single metal nanostructure can be enhanced about 30 times by attaching a second metal nanostructure with a 10 times higher quality factor than that of the first one. The origin of this enhancement is Fano resonant coupling of the two metal nanostructures. We support our findings on Fano enhancement of second harmonic generation by an experimental study of a coupled plasmonic system composed of a silver nanoparticle and a silver nanowire on glass surface in which the ratio of the quality factors are also estimated to be around 10 times

Opinions of syrian refugee and turkish citizen pregnant women regarding the ministry of health's practices to combating smoking

Laws have been enacted by the Ministry of Health to protect health against smoking. We aimed to contribute to the literature by examining the opinions of the citizens of the Republic of Turkey, which was presented as a role model by the World Health Organization in the fight against smoking, and of Syrian refugees whose public life was disrupted and migrated due to the war, as well as was examined the effectiveness of the Ministry of Health's practices in this field on pregnant women. The universe of the study consisted of pregnant women who applied to the Harran University Chest Diseases Clinic between December 2019 and April 2021. The sample of this cross-sectional study consisted of 208 pregnant women who agreed to participate in the study. In the collection of the data, a participant identification form, which includes socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics, and a questionnaire to define the opinions of pregnant women on the anti-smoking practices of the Ministry of Health were applied to pregnant women. This study group consisted of 54.3% Syrian Refugee pregnant women and 45.7% of Turkish citizen pregnant women. This study was determined that 63% of Syrian refugee pregnant women and 37% of Turkish pregnant women smoked during their last pregnancy. A significant difference was found between the groups according to the age, presence of a smoker in the family, the smoking status of their spouse, and "State of knowledge of health problems caused by smoking" of Syrian Refugee and Turkish citizens pregnant. Our study is the first study that examines the opinions of pregnant regarding the smoking cessation practices of the Ministry of Health in the field and compares Syrian refugee-Turkish citizens pregnant. Active smoking of pregnant and the rate of exposure to passive smoking by their spouse or others living in-house suggest that smoking is still a major threat for pregnant. It has shown that the practices of the Ministry of Health in the field are known and supported by pregnant, but these practices are far from the inspection mechanisms. [Med-Science 2022; 11(2.000): 540-6

A Next Generation Test-bed for Large Aperture Imaging Applications

Demand for higher resolution imaging and various science missions have necessitated large synthetic apertures, thus formation flying spacecraft. This situation has led to a sustained interest in formation flight and associated technologies like metrology, distributed control, relative dynamics modeling and autonomous operation. However, current mission concepts require undemonstrated technologies which must be quickly developed and space matured to enable the flight of these missions. We’ve developed a mission concept inspired by the technology requirements driven by InSAR. The concept clearly marks the sophistication nano satellites have reached. The mission will consist of three modes in which we first launch two spacecraft joined together and do subsystem verification and orbit checkout of them. Later on these spacecraft are separated by virtue of a flexible rod which extends and constrains their relative motion. We test our on-board laser metrology, vision based attitude and distance sensor, and cross navigation experiments. This mode also enables us to test the distributed control flexible spacecraft structures. Finally the rod is released from the middle and retracted to allow the demonstration of precision free flying formation

Large Congenital Melanocytic Nevus on the Breast Sparing the Nipple and Areola.

BackgroundDivided nevus is a rare entity that has been described for a special appearance of congenital melanocytic nevi (CMNs) occurring on the eyelid and penis. It is presumed that the formation of divided nevi is related with the embryologic development of the eyelid and penis, thus giving a hint about the occurrence time of CMN in utero. This article focuses on a formerly undescribed observation of another special clinical appearance of CMN discussing possible relation with embryogenesis

The clinical spectrum of xanthomatous lesions of the eyelids.

Yellowish papules, nodules, or plaques, namely "xanthomatous" lesions, may be seen on the eyelids in the course of various disorders. The prototype is "xanthelasma palpebrarum" (XP) that is localized only to the eyelids and may be associated with hyperlipidemia. On the other hand, different types of normolipemic disorders may also cause xanthomatous eyelid lesions. Among these, Langerhans cell histiocytosis, diffuse normolipemic xanthoma, and non-Langerhans cell histiocytoses (papular xanthoma, juvenile xanthogranuloma, xanthoma disseminatum, adult-onset xanthogranuloma, adult-onset asthma and periocular xanthogranuloma, necrobiotic xanthogranuloma, Erdheim-Chester disease, Rosai-Dorfman disease, and reticulohistiocytosis) can be listed. The eyelid findings of this heterogeneous group of disorders are challenging to differentiate from each other due to common clinical aspects that may even sometimes mimic XP. Nodularity, induration, ulceration, diffuse eyelid involvement, and extension from eyelids to the neighboring skin may represent the clinical features of xanthomatous lesions other than XP. It is necessary to obtain a thorough history and exclude XP and then perform detailed dermatological and systemic examination, biopsy for histopathologic confirmation, and appropriate specific imaging screens. As some of the conditions may be associated with other systemic disorders, especially malignancies, the differentiation of xanthomatous eyelid lesions has a critical importance, and clinical signs can be guiding

Evaluation of Associated Lymphomas and Their Risk Factors in Patients with Lymphomatoid Papulosis: A Retrospective Single-Center Study from Turkey

Objective: Lymphomatoid papulosis (LyP) is an indolent skin disease with variable clinical features classified among the primary cutaneous CD30+ T-cell lymphoproliferative disorders. It may show association with cutaneous and systemic lymphomas. We aimed to identify the frequency and characteristics of associated lymphomas among Turkish patients with LyP and to determine the risk factors for secondary lymphomas