Probabilistic Logic Programming with Beta-Distributed Random Variables

We enable aProbLog---a probabilistic logical programming approach---to reason in presence of uncertain probabilities represented as Beta-distributed random variables. We achieve the same performance of state-of-the-art algorithms for highly specified and engineered domains, while simultaneously we maintain the flexibility offered by aProbLog in handling complex relational domains. Our motivation is that faithfully capturing the distribution of probabilities is necessary to compute an expected utility for effective decision making under uncertainty: unfortunately, these probability distributions can be highly uncertain due to sparse data. To understand and accurately manipulate such probability distributions we need a well-defined theoretical framework that is provided by the Beta distribution, which specifies a distribution of probabilities representing all the possible values of a probability when the exact value is unknown.Comment: Accepted for presentation at AAAI 201

Soğuk savaş sonrası Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nin Ortadoğu politikasının radikalleşmeye etkileri

06.03.2018 tarihli ve 30352 sayılı Resmi Gazetede yayımlanan “Yükseköğretim Kanunu İle Bazı Kanun Ve Kanun Hükmünde Kararnamelerde Değişiklik Yapılması Hakkında Kanun” ile 18.06.2018 tarihli “Lisansüstü Tezlerin Elektronik Ortamda Toplanması, Düzenlenmesi ve Erişime Açılmasına İlişkin Yönerge” gereğince tam metin erişime açılmıştır.Ortadoğu tüm tarihsel süreçte; hem jeopolitik konumu hem de stratejik önemi nedeniyle kilit bir bölge olmuştur. Bu araştırma odağında bakıldığında ise Soğuk Savaş sonrasında ciddi bir kaosa sürüklenen Ortadoğu coğrafyasında ABD ve çevresindeki güç odakları çeşitli politikalar izlemiş ve müdahalelerde bulunmuştur. Soğuk Savaş'ın ardından tek kutuplu Dünya düzeninde başat hale gelen ABD, Ortadoğu'yu bir oyun alanına çevirmiş ve her başkan döneminde yeni bir oyun sahne almıştır. Özellikle 11 Eylül sonrasında ABD, tüm Ortadoğu'yu terörize ederek faaliyetlerini meşrulaştırmak istemiş ve askeri müdahalelerde bulunmuştur. Bu müdahaleler, Ortadoğu toplumlarında ABD karşıtlığını ve radikalleşmeyi körüklemiş, radikalleşme de batıda İslamofobi'yi beraberinde getirmiştir. Bu iki durum birbirini tetiklerken, ötekileştirilen Ortadoğu coğrafyasında radikalleşme eğilimleri her geçen dönem daha da belirginleşmiştir. Ortadoğu politikaları incelendiğinde ABD'nin öncelikle Arap milliyetçiliği ve Baasçı rejimleri tasfiye etmek istediği, demokratikleşme adı altında reform baskısı kurduğu, reform ve dönüşümlerin gerçekleşme konusunda başarısızlık gözlemlense de istikrarsızlık, çatışma ve kaos ortamı yaratılarak pek çok rejimi devirme konusunda başarı yakalandığı söylenebilecektir. Soğuk Savaş döneminde çekişme halinde olan ABD ve SSCB'nin, Soğuk Savaş sonrasında da Ortadoğu'da çekişmelerini çok yoğun olmayan durumlara karşın sürdürdüğü, ABD'nin hamlelerinde Rusya ile yakın rejimleri öncelikle hedef belirlediği görülmektedir. Ortadoğu'daki müdahaleler ve yaptırımların, Ortadoğu toplumlarında aşırılığa neden olduğu ve radikalleşmeyi körüklediği değerlendirilmiştir. Bu açıklamalar bağlamında ise yapılan bu araştırmada ABD'nin Ortadoğu politikasının radikalleşmeye etkileri üç bölüm başlığı altında incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Araştırmanın giriş kısmında, kavramsal çerçeve, kapsam, önem ve amaç ortaya konulmuştur. Birinci bölümde ise radikalleşme kavramı tanıtılmış, kavramı dönüşümü ve etkileyen faktörler incelenmiştir. Bununla birlikte radikalleşme süreci ve kavram üzerine yapılan kuramsal tartışmalar da bu bölümde değerlendirilmiştir. İkinci bölümde ise Ortadoğu, hem coğrafik, hem stratejik hem de sosyolojik yönleriyle ortaya konulmuş, Ortadoğu'da radikalleşmeyi tetikleyen faktörler incelenmiştir. Üçüncü ve son bölümde ise Ortadoğu'nun ABD için önemi, ABD'nin bölge ile ilişkileri, bu ilişkileri belirleyen faktörler, Soğuk Savaş ve sonrası dönemde ABD'nin Ortadoğu politikası değerlendirilmiş ve İslamofobi'nin radikalleşmeyle ilişkisi ortaya konulmuştur.The Middle East has been a key region in the entire historical process due to its geopolitical position and strategic importance. In the focus of this research, in the Middle East geography, which has been dragged into serious chaos after the Cold War, the power centers in and around the US have pursued various policies and intervened. The United States, which became dominant in the unipolar world order after the Cold War, turned the Middle East into a playground and took the stage of a new game during each presidential term. Especially after 9/11, the United States wanted to legitimize its activities by terrorizing the entire Middle East and made military interventions. These interventions fueled anti-US and radicalization in Middle Eastern societies and radicalization brought Islamophobia in the west. While these two conditions triggered each other, the tendencies of radicalization in the marginalized Middle East geography became more and more evident. When the Middle East policies are analyzed, it can be said that the US primarily wants to liquidate Arab nationalism and Baathist regimes, put pressure on reform under the name of democratization, and fail to realize the reforms and transformations, but it is possible to create instability, conflict and chaos and create success in overthrowing many regimes. It is seen that the US and USSR, which were in conflict during the Cold War period, continued their conflicts in the Middle East after the Cold War, despite the intense situations, and the USA's moves set a priority target for the close regimes with Russia. Interventions and sanctions in the Middle East have been considered to cause extremism in Middle Eastern societies and fuel radicalization. In the context of these explanations, in this study, the effects of the USA's Middle East policy on radicalization were examined under three chapters. In the entrance of the research, conceptual framework, scope, importance and purpose have been put forward. In the first part, the concept of radicalization is introduced and the transformation of the concept and the factors affecting it are examined. However, the theoretical debates on the concept of radicalization and the concept are also discussed in this section. In the second chapter, the Middle East is presented in terms of both geographical, strategic and sociological aspects and the factors that trigger radicalization in the Middle East are examined. In the third and last part, the importance of the Middle East for the USA, the relations of the USA with the region, the factors that determine these relations, the Middle East policy of the US during the Cold War and the post-war period were evaluated and the relationship between Islamophobia and radicalization was revealed

Uncertainty-Aware Deep Classifiers using Generative Models

Deep neural networks are often ignorant about what they do not know and overconfident when they make uninformed predictions. Some recent approaches quantify classification uncertainty directly by training the model to output high uncertainty for the data samples close to class boundaries or from the outside of the training distribution. These approaches use an auxiliary data set during training to represent out-of-distribution samples. However, selection or creation of such an auxiliary data set is non-trivial, especially for high dimensional data such as images. In this work we develop a novel neural network model that is able to express both aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty to distinguish decision boundary and out-of-distribution regions of the feature space. To this end, variational autoencoders and generative adversarial networks are incorporated to automatically generate out-of-distribution exemplars for training. Through extensive analysis, we demonstrate that the proposed approach provides better estimates of uncertainty for in- and out-of-distribution samples, and adversarial examples on well-known data sets against state-of-the-art approaches including recent Bayesian approaches for neural networks and anomaly detection methods.Comment: This is a post-referred version of a conference paper published in AAAI 202

The relationship between frontal sinus dimensions and skeletal malocclusion

PurposeThe aim of this retrospective research is to compare frontal sinus dimensions in skeletal Class I, skeletal Class II, and skeletal Class III individuals and to evaluate the relationship of these dimensions with anterior skull base length and some cephalometric values.Materials and MethodsIn this research, we used lateral cephalometric radiographs of 60 people aged 17 to 25. In individuals with skeletal Class I malocclusion, skeletal Class II malocclusion due to mandibular insufficiency, and skeletal Class III malocclusion due to mandibular excess, measurements of frontal sinus length and height as well as S-N, Co-A and Co-Gn lengths, ANB0, FMA0, SN-GoGn0 angles values were performed. The length between the highest point and the lowest point of the frontal sinus was calculated as the height of the frontal sinus, and the length between the most anterior and the most posterior points of the frontal sinus was calculated as the length of the frontal sinus.ResultsThe frontal sinus length and height were found to be higher in skeletal Class III individuals than in skeletal Class I and skeletal Class II individuals, however, there was no significant difference between skeletal Class I and Class II individuals.ConclusionThe increase in frontal sinus height and length correlated positively with the decrease in the ANB angle and the increase in the SN and Co-Gn lengths. The dimensions of the frontal sinus may be an indicator for the remaining mandibular growth potential

Effects of Platelet-Rich Plasma and Platelet-Rich Fibrin Usage in Regenerative Endodontic Treatments: An Analysis of Root Length and Dentin Thickness

Background: Regenerative endodontic treatment aims to relieve symptoms and maintain root development and regeneration of pulp tissue. This study aimed to retrospectively examine and compare the use of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) in the regenerative endodontic treatment (RET) of immature necrotic teeth in terms of clinical and radiographic treatment results. Materials and Methods: This study included patients who underwent Regenerative Endodontic Treatment (RET) at Selcuk University Faculty of Dentistry between 2014 and 2019, totalling 38 cases. After apical bleeding is induced into the canal, PRP was utilized in 16 cases, while PRF was employed in 22 cases during the treatments. The changes in root length and dentin thickness were calculated by measuring the radiographs with the help of Image J software. The success rates of the treatments were evaluated in the range of 0-3 points based on the scoring index of Bezgin et al. Changes in root length and dentin thickness, apical closure, and success score were compared statistically in PRP and PRF treatment methods. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the group who had treatment with PRP and those who had treatment with PRF in terms of apical closure, root length increase, and success scoring, but there was a significant difference in terms of increased dentin thickness. Conclusions: The use of PRP and PRF in RET showed similar results in terms of treatment success. Both treatment groups showed an increase in dentin thickness and root length