Automated Semantic Segmentation for Autonomous Railway Vehicles

With the development of computer vision methods, the number of areas where autonomous systems are used has also increased. Among these areas is the transportation sector. Autonomous systems in the transportation sector are mostly developed for road vehicles, but highway rules and standards different between countries. In this study, models capable of semantic segmentation have been developed for autonomous railway vehicles with the help of the public dataset. Four different U-Net models were trained with 8500 images for four different scenarios. The model trained for binary semantic segmentation reached mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) value of 89.1%, while the models trained for multi-class semantic segmentation reached 83.2% mIoU, 79.7% mIoU and 29.6% mIoU. Information about the inclusion of high-resolution images in model training and performance metrics in semantic segmentation studies shared

An investigation of educational technology standarts of physical education candidate teachers in terms of several variables

Abstract The present study was designed to evaluate physical education candidate teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs of technology usage in line with the views of physical education candidate teachers in terms of NETS*T standards and to find out whether their self-efficacy beliefs differentiate in terms of gender, time spent using computer, computer usage level, time spent using the internet and their type of using the internet. This study aims at revealing the overall state of pre-service physical education teachers in terms of educational technology standards. The survey method was applied in this study to collect the research data. The scale developed by Çoklar (2008) taking into consideration the sub-factors of NETS-T standards was used as the data gathering tool. 332 (male=203; female=129) final year undergraduate students studying at physical education department at 9 different universities participated in the study. One-way analysis of variance, one-sample independent t test and frequency, percentage from descriptive statistics were used in the analyses of the study and level of significance was set at .05. It was found that teacher candidates participated in the study had a high level of self-efficacy regarding educational technology standards. It was determined that there was not a significant difference between the time spent using computers, the time spent using the internet and  sub-level self-efficacy beliefs of educational technology standards but there was a significant difference between level of using computer, type of using the internet and sub-level self-efficacy beliefs of educational technology standards

Essays on migration

This dissertation includes two chapters. In the first chapter, we examine the impacts of remittances on various household outcomes including: child school attendance and child illiteracy, child labor, adult labor and household well-being. We use IV estimation technique to account for the endogeneity of remittances. We find evidence of a significant positive impact of remittances on school attendance of 6- to 19-years-old boys and of 6- to 14-years-old girls. Receiving remittances leads to a lower school retention for 15- to 19-years-old girls. Girls of ages 6-to-14 from recipient households are more likely to be literate. Children aged 15 to 19 in recipient households are significantly less likely to supply labor. Adult labor supply results are in favor of income effect hypothesis. Lastly, recipient households are shown to be relatively better-off with respect to welfare compared to non-recipients. In the second chapter, we estimate the determinants of 28-54-years-old male work migrants’ location choices among 67 provinces of Turkey. The results show that internal migrants respond to differences in migrant networks, labor market and population attributes between locations while deciding on the migration destination. Distance from the source province is shown to be a significant deterrent of immigrant’s location choice. Migrants are drawn to cities in which their former compatriots are highly concentrated. Migrants are more likely to move to cities which have relatively better economic conditions as captured by lower unemployment rate and to cities with larger populations that has larger economic activity

Adjustierung und Optimierung des SAPS II anhand des Nationalregisters der DIVI

In dieser Arbeit geht es um die spezifische Anpassung des SAPS II (Simplified Acute Physiology Score II) an die Zwecke und Ziele der Sektion Qualitätssicherung der DIVI (Deutsche Interdisziplinäre Vereinigung für Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin). Der SAPS-II-Score stellt die Nachfolge von SAPS dar und dient zur Einschätzung der Erkrankungsschwere auf der Basis physiologischer Daten sowie zur Berechnung des Letalitätsrisikos. Seit der Einführung des SAPS II sind 19 Jahre vergangen, er ist im Laufe der Jahre veraltet und muss an die aktuellen Gegebenheiten angepasst werden. Die Anpassung des SAPS II erfolgte in dieser Studie durch das Hinzufügen neuer Parameter wie Aufnahme von externen Krankenhäusern, Trauma, Geschlecht, Neuro sowie Fachbereiche zum SAPS II. Die normalerweise im originalen SAPS-II-Score vorkommende GCS (Glasgow Coma Scale) wurde auf Grund der hohen Beobachtervariation bei sedierten und beatmeten Patienten nicht ermittelt und somit unberücksichtigt gelassen. Stattdessen wurde die Variable neurologische bzw. neurochirurgische Patienten verwendet, um den neurologischen Status einzubeziehen. Des Weiteren bezieht sich die mit dem originalen SAPS-II-Score ermittelte Prognose auf das Krankenhaus-Outcome, die mittels SAPS-DIVI 2 berechnete Vorhersage hingegen auf das Intensiv-Outcome. Bei den neuen Variablen fiel insbesondere der Parameter Aufnahme von Extern ins Augenmerk, da er einen nicht zu unterschätzenden Einfluss auf die Letalität hat und daher im SAPS II berücksichtigt werden sollte. Außerdem spielen auch die beiden Parameter Alter und Zuweisung eine große Rolle bei der Bestimmung der Letalität mittels SAPS II. Die Variablen Trauma und Geschlecht hingegen spielen keine wesentliche Rolle bei der Ermittlung der Mortalitätswahrscheinlichkeit beim SAPS II. Der SAPS II ist ein Score, der die Erkrankungsschwere wiedergibt und sich somit als nützliches objektives Hilfsmittel bei subjektiv-emotionalen Entscheidungen eignet. Er kann also bei medizinischen Entscheidungen unterstützend eingesetzt werden. Damit seine Aussagekraft auch im Laufe der Jahre bestehen bleibt, muss er regelmäßig an die aktuellen Gegebenheiten angepasst werden, indem die Gütekriterien des SAPS II kontinuierlich verbessert werden oder eine gravierendere Modifizierung des Score-Systems erfolgt mit Einführung eines neuen Score-Modells, nämlich SAPS 3

Impacts of remittances on child human capital investment, educational expenditure, and living conditions of households: evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the impacts of international remittances on child human capital investment, educational expenditure, and living conditions of households. Remittances can increase family income and reduce resource constraint problems, allowing more consumption and investment. On the other hand, migration which is the main driving force behind remittances may have a disrupting effect on family structure and may result in adverse outcomes. After controlling for household wealth- the main observable selection dimension on remitting, average estimates suggest that 6-14 years old girls from recipient households are more likely to attend school and 6-14 years old boys from recipient households are less likely to be illiterate. 15-19 years old girls and boys from recipient households are less likely to work as wage earners and as unpaid family workers, respectively. Remittances improve living conditions of households by reducing the probability of suffering from poverty. Lastly, recipient households spend more on secondary school expenses and on any sort of educational purposes. When it comes to heterogeneity of impacts of remittances which is derived by estimating specifications separately for households with one parent absent due to migration, and for households where both parents are present at home, 15-19 years old girls from households with both parents present at home seem to benefit the most from remittances. Girls from recipient households where both parents are present at home have higher school attendance and lower participation in wage labor. For boys from remittance receiving households with both parents present at home, there is no advantage in school attendance and wage labor implying the presence of gender differences in the use of remittances across households and possibly within households. Girls and boys from recipient households with both parents present at home, seem to be more literate. Households are less likely to live in poverty or extreme poverty if both of the parents are at home and they receive remittances. For households where both parents are present at home, remittances work in the direction of obtaining the favored outcomes, whereas for households where one of the parents is absent migration's disrupting effect on family structure neutralizes positive impacts of remittances on outcomes of interest implying that remittances act like extra income for households where both parents are present at home which is free from the disrupting effect of migration on family structure and mimic the impacts of family income on outcomes of interest

Optik atrofi, maküler incelme ve arkuat skotom gibi atipik klinik bulgular gösteren çoklu geçici beyaz nokta sendromu olgusu

A 57-year-old man presented with a sudden loss of vision, central scotoma, and photopsia in the left eye. Grayish-white spots localized in the deep retina around the macula and optic disc were observed in the left eye on funduscopic examination. We observed a hyperfluorescence in a wreath-like pattern with late staining in retinal lesions during the early stage of fundus fluorescein angiography. Disruption was observed in an ellipsoid zone in optical coherence tomography. Multiple evanescent white dot syndrome was diagnosed based on findings and followed up without medication. The visual acuity of the left eye improved from 1/20 to 6/10 after a 7-week follow-up. Dilated fundus examination showed optic atrophy, and visual field examination revealed an arcuate scotoma.Elli yedi yaşında erkek hasta, sol gözde ani görme kaybı, santral skotom ve fotopsi şikâyetleri ile kliniğimize başvurdu. Funduskopik muayenesinde, sol gözde makula ve optik disk etrafında, retinanın derin katlarında lokalize olmuş grimsi beyaz lezyonlar gözlendi. Fundus floresan anjiyografi erken dönemi boyunca retinal lezyonlarda gözlenen çelenk benzeri hiperfloresans, geç boyanma ile devam etti. Optik koherens tomografide, fotoreseptör iç ve dış segment tabakasında harabiyet görüldü. Mevcut bulgular eşliğinde hastaya, çoklu geçici beyaz nokta sendromu teşhisi kondu ve ilaçsız takip edildi. Yedi haftalık takip sonrası hastanın görme keskinliği 1/20’den 6/10’a yükseldi. Dilate fundus muayenesinde, optik atrofi ve görme alanında arkuat skotom oluştuğu gözlendi

Larinks skuamöz hücreli karsinom kökenli optik disk ve koroid metastazlı bir olgu

A 67-year-old male patient was presented with loss of vision, which he noticed in his left eye one week ago. He had undergone total laryngectomy due to laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma 3 years ago. His fundus examination revealed an elevated yellow mass on the optic disc. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) were performed with suspicion of laryngeal cancer metastasis. The MRI showed metastatic lesions in the brain, optic disc, and the surrounding choroid. The CT demonstrated diffuse metastasis in both lungs. The patient received radiotherapy for the brain, optic disc, and choroidal metastases. Unfortunately, the patient died within 2.5 months after the diagnosis because of systemic complications that developed due to extraocular causes. Metastasis of laryngeal cancer to the optic disc and choroid is rare. Although the majority of optic disc tumors are primary, a systemic investigation should be performed in cases of a mass on the disc with the suspicion of distant organ metastasis, albeit rare.T Altmış yedi yaşında erkek hasta, 1 hafta önce sol gözünde fark ettiği görme kaybı şikâyeti ile başvurdu. Üç yıl önce laringeal skuamöz hücreli karsinom nedeniyle total larenjektomi geçirdiği öğrenildi. Fundus muayenesinde, optik diskte sarı bir kitle görüldü. Larinks kanseri metastazı şüphesi ile manyetik rezonans görüntüleme (MRG) ve bilgisayarlı tomografi (BT) yapıldı. MRG’de beyin, optik disk ve çevreleyen koroidde, metastatik lezyonlar tespit edildi. BT’de her iki akciğerde yaygın metastaz saptandı. Hasta beyin, optik disk ve koroid metastazları için radyoterapi aldı. Ekstraoküler nedenlere bağlı gelişen sistemik komplikasyonlar nedeniyle tanı konulduktan sonraki 2,5 ay içinde ne yazık ki hasta kaybedildi. Larinks kanserinin, optik disk ve koroide metastazı nadirdir. Optik disk tümörlerinin çoğunluğu primer olmakla birlikte, nadir de olsa uzak organ metastazı şüphesi ile diskte kitle olması durumunda sistemik inceleme yapılmalıdır

An estimation of the performance of a passive cooling system incorporating a ground heat exchanger using a multilayer artificial neural network

Abstract Objective: This paper examines the cooling of an office building without a heat pump, using only ground heat exchangers (GHE) and implementing artificial neural network (ANN) to train it on experimental data. Methods: The office building is situated at 38° 40′ 57′′ N latitude and 39° 10′ 29′′ E longitude in the province of Elazig. Each minute, the installed system was monitoring the office’s external meteorological data, the office’s indoor meteorological data, the GHE inlet and outlet temperatures, and the amount of heat load developed during the cooling process. In this study, the passive cooling system’s cooling load and coefficient of performance (COP) were experimentally examined. A second important contribution of this paper is the multilayer ANN model that was created using data selected from the experimental setup, which was measured and recorded. Results: During the summer months of 2018, the COP of the system was measured to be 1.67 on average. The accuracy rates of the multilayer ANN model proposed for cooling systems were calculated to be over 99% and 95% in the training and test datasets, respectively. It was observed that the performance value estimated by ANN converges to the true value by 99%. Conclusion: Having performed this study, it has been demonstrated that passive cooling can be achieved with GHE, and by conducting this study without utilizing a heat pump system, we intend to contribute significantly to the relevant scientific literature