Preparation of diethyl malonate adducts from chalcone analogs containing a thienyl ring

Nine chalcone-diethyl malonate derivatives (4a-i) were prepared by the reaction of chalcone derivatives (3a-i) with diethyl malonate in the presence of a catalytic amount of KOt-Bu in CH2CI2 in good to excellent yields. The products were characterized by FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR and elemental analyses. KEY WORDS: Michael addition, Chalcone, KOt-Bu, Diethyl malonate  Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2010, 24(1), 85-91. 

Differential Bilateral Primary Motor Cortex tDCS Fails to Modulate Choice Bias and Readiness in Perceptual Decision Making

One of the critical factors that guide choice behavior is the prior bias of the decision-maker with respect to different options, namely, the relative readiness by which the decision-maker opts for a specific choice. Although previous neuroimaging work has shown decision bias related activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, in a recent work by Javadi et al. (2015), primary motor cortex was also implicated. By applying transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), they have revealed a causal role of the primary motor cortex excitability in the induction of response time (RT) differences and decision bias in the form of choice probability. The current study aimed to replicate these recent findings with an experimental design that contained a sham group to increase experimental control and an additional testing phase to investigate the possible after-effects of tDCS. The conventional decision outputs such as choice proportion and RT were analyzed along with the theory-driven estimates of choice bias and non-decision related components of RTs (e.g., motor implementation speed of choices made). None of the statistical comparisons favored the alternative hypotheses over the null hypotheses. Consequently, previous findings regarding the effect of primary motor cortex excitability on choice bias and response times could not be replicated with a more controlled experimental design that is recommended for tDCS studies (Horvath et al., 2015). This empirical discrepancy between the two studies adds to the evidence demonstrating inconsistent effects of tDCS in establishing causal relationships between cortical excitability and motor behavior

Türkiye’deki toplumsal tasarım uygulamaları: katılım ve işbirliğine dair eleştirel bir analiz.

This study provides a detailed examination of socially oriented design (SOD) practices of the last decade in Turkey. Referring to the lack of academic studies in the design literature focusing on SOD practices, I aimed at discovering the entire processes of these practices to construct a critical analysis. The study was conducted in two stages by applying a textual analysis approach. In the first stage, initially, 93 SOD practices were compiled and explored through their representations on Turkish design media. Then, 35 of them were determined by the criteria derived from the SOD literature and their salient features were examined in terms of the range of actors involved in the processes, the prominent issues tackled by the initiators of these practices, objectives they intended for and methods they applied. In the second stage, firstly, five face-to face expert interviews were conducted to the validity of the study. Based on the recommendations of these experts and the criteria derived from the literature, secondly, 13 interviews were carried out with 16 initiators to analyze the processes of these practices deeply. The purpose was to go beyond what is visible in the media discourse of the initiatives identified in the first stage and to examine the entire processes in terms of the relationships of the actors, the distribution of roles, and the approaches of participation and collaboration. In the second stage, where the traces of initiators of SOD practices followed, a material-semiotic theoretical framework was applied. As a result, the study reveals the current situation of SOD practices in Turkey, the motivations of the initiators, the requirements of the processes in terms of participation and collaboration, the changing roles of actors, and the strategies and values adopted in the involvement of different actors. In conclusion, a detailed discussion of the implications of the study was conducted, and by reflecting the diversity of SOD practices in Turkey, a model that demonstrates the prominent characteristics was introduced. The contribution of the study and the recommendations for future studies was also made.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. Industrial Design

Ürün Tasarımında Sağlarlık Yönetimi ve Sağlarlığın Eleştirel Analizi

Araştırmanın amacı, örnek ürünlerin vaka çalışmaları üzerinden, tasarlanmış ürünlerde sağlarlığın (affordance) tespitine ve eleştirel analizine imkan veren teorik bir çerçeve geliştirmektir.Aslen çevresel psikoloji alanına ait olan sağlarlık kavramına, tasarım araştırmalarında son dönemde başvurulmakta. Ancak kavramın mevcut yorumlarında ürünün ve kullanım ortamının toplumsal bağlamından kopuk ve olası ya da mevcut politik etkilerinden azade analiz yöntem ve araçları öneriliyor. Aksine, sağlarlık kavramı, tasarlanmış ürünlere yönelik mevcut eleştirel çalışmaların sembolik süreçlere odaklandığına dair eleştirilere cevap olma potansiyeli taşıyor. Yeni materyalist perspektiflerin önem kazandığı günümüzde ürün tasarımı analizinde ürünlerin yalnızca sembolizmlerini değil, maddi etki ve kısıtlarını da anlamanın yolu ‘sağlarlık’ kavramından geçmektedir. Bu kavramı tasarımın sosyopolitik eleştirisine dahil etmek, ürün eleştirisinde bugüne kadar göz önüne alınmamış tasarımsal meselelerin de eleştiriye dahil edilmesini mümkün kılacaktır. Bunun için, örnek tasarım ürünlerini ve çeşitli tüketim senaryolarını ele alarak bu amaçla kullanılacak teorik bir çerçeve ve ilgili metodolojik araçlar geliştirilmesi gerekmekte

Efficient synthesis and characterization of novel isoxazole derivatives including dihdyropyrazole and methanoisoindole moieties

Isoxazole and pyrazole derivatives have a wide range of biological activity and they are of great interest to medicinal chemist. In this study, the synthesis and characterization of a series of novel hybrid molecules containing pyrazole and isoxazole rings ((3aS,4S,4aR,7aS,8S,8aS)-6-(4-(1-acetyl-5-(4-(aryl/heteroaryl))-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyrazol-3-yl)phenyl)-3-methyl-4,4 a,8,8a-tetrahydro-3-aH-4,8-methanoisoxazo-lo [4,5-A isoindole-5,7(6H,7aH)-dione derivatives) were reported

Do you know what a sensor is?Peer learning in interdisciplinary design teams

Recently we witness a rising interest in interdisciplinary collaboration in both industrial design and engineering education. This interest is triggered by the observation that professionals who do not experience interdisciplinary cooperation during undergraduate education find it challenging to work with people from other disciplines. Considering that developing technology and innovation invites more complex design problems which are often beyond the professional skills and competences of a single person, learning how to work in interdisciplinary teams becomes a central concern within the undergraduate programs of these fields. This paper focuses on peer learning as an important aspect of interdisciplinary design teams in the context of extra-curricular education activities. The empirical data comes from the accounts of 42 undergraduate and postgraduate students who participated in the Interdisciplinary Design Studio (IDS), which is the first educational activity organised by Middle East Technical University Design Factory in October 2015. In IDS, students from the Departments of Industrial Design, Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Business Administration came together in six interdisciplinary teams to develop innovative products following the stages of a design process. Throughout the four-week IDS, students presented their work to and got feedback on their projects from an interdisciplinary team of tutors, which consists of faculty members from Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Architecture, and Faculty Economic and Administrative Sciences. Drawing on the semi-structured interviews with the students, this paper presents a comparison between learning from peers versus learning from tutors, highlighting that students foreground the former over the latter as a more effective way of learning about interdisciplinarity

ODTÜ’de Disiplinlerarası İşbirliği: Teknoloji, Tasarım ve İnovasyon Merkezi Kapsamında Yürütülen Disiplinlerarası Tasarım Stüdyosunun Değerlendirilmesi

ODTÜ Teknoloji, Tasarım ve İnovasyon Merkezi (TİM), üniversite içerisinde çeşitli disiplinlerden öğrenci ve öğretim üyelerinin bir araya gelerek işbirliği yapmaları için bir zemin sunuyor. Dünyadaki benzer merkezlere baktığımızda, buralarda gerçekleştirilen eğitime ve sanayiye yönelik disiplinlerarası işbirliklerinin araştırmayla desteklediğini görüyoruz. İşbirliklerinin araştırmayla değerlendirilmesi ve bu değerlendirmelerin uluslararası alanyazında paylaşılması, hem merkezlerin görünürlüğünü arttırmak hem de merkezlerde yürütülen etkinliklerin ve çalışmaların sürdürülebilirliğini güçlendirmek açısından önemli. Bu noktadan yola çıkarak önerdiğimiz bu projede, TİM'in ilk etkinliği olan Disiplinlerarası Tasarım Stüdyosu (DTS) üzerine bir araştırma yürütürken iki amacımız var: (1) Bir işbirliği modeli olarak Disiplinlerarası Tasarım Stüdyosunu öğrencilerin ve TİM’de yer alan öğretim üyelerinin bakış açısından değerlendirmek, (2) Disiplinlerarası Tasarım Stüdyosunda farklı disiplinlerden gelen öğrencilerin ve TİM’de yer alan öğretim üyelerinin birlikte çalışma süreçlerini anlamak