Lessons from the rector of the first fully flipped learning university

Dünya Flipped Learning Girişimi’nin yeni eğitim-öğretim yöntemleri ve teknolojileri hakkında dünyada öncülük yapma amacıyla yayınlanan Flipped Learning 3.0 Dergisi’ne MEF Üniversitesi Rektörü Prof. Dr. Muhammed Şahin kapak oldu.Sahin: MEF Educational Institutions was founded in the 1970s by İbrahim Arıkan, an educator and businessman. In 1996, he founded MEF national and international K-12 schools in Istanbul and Izmir. In 2013, he founded MEF University. As both educator and entrepreneur, Arıkan was in a unique position to establish a university. He was aware the educational system was not well suited to the current needs of students and society and envisioned a totally new educational approach for MEF University. To find this approach, he brought me on board as founding rector. Having been rector of Istanbul Technical University from 2008 to 2012, I had a strong background in innovations in education. During our first meeting, Arıkan made it clear that if he was going to establish a university, it needed to be unique and take a different mentality to the educational needs of today’s students. I vividly remember Ibrahim emphatically declaring that if he could not make a change to higher education, he would call a halt to his aspirations for opening a university

Artificial neural network modeling techniques for drying kinetics of citrus medica fruit during the freeze-drying process

The main objective of this study is to analyze the drying kinetics of Citrus medica by using the freeze-drying method at various thicknesses (3, 5, and 7 mm) and cabin pressures (0.008, 0.010, and 0.012 mbar). Additionally, the study aims to evaluate the efficacy of an artificial neural network (ANN) in estimating crucial parameters like dimensionless mass loss ratio (MR), moisture content, and drying rate. Feedforward multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network architecture was employed to model the freeze-drying process of Citrus medica. The ANN architecture was trained using a dataset covering various drying conditions and product characteristics. The training process, including hyperparameter optimization, is detailed and the performance of the ANN is evaluated using robust metrics such as RMSE and R-2. As a result of comparing the experimental MR with the predicted MR of the ANN modeling created by considering various product thicknesses and cabin pressures, the R-2 was found to be 0.998 and the RMSE was 0.010574. Additionally, color change, water activity, and effective moisture diffusivity were examined in this study. As a result of the experiments, the color change in freeze-dried Citrus medica fruits was between 6.9 +/- 0.2 and 21.0 +/- 0.6, water activity was between 0.4086 +/- 0.0104 and 0.5925 +/- 0.0064, effective moisture diffusivity was between 4.19 x 10(-11) and 21.4 x 10(-11), respectively. In freeze-drying experiments conducted at various cabin pressures, it was observed that increasing the slice thickness of Citrus medica fruit resulted in longer drying times, higher water activity, greater color changes, and increased effective moisture diffusivity. By applying the experimental data to mathematical models and an ANN, the optimal process conditions were determined. The results of this study indicate that ANNs can potentially be applied to characterize the freeze-drying process of Citrus medica

Monitoring of deformations along Burdur Fethiye fault zone with GPS

Burdur Fethiye fay zonu Türkiye’nin güneybatısında tektonik olarak oldukça aktif bir bölgede yer almaktadır. Tarihi kayıtlara göre bölge birçok defa depremlerle yıkıma uğramıştır. Bölgedeki tektonik hareketleri belirlemek amacıyla bölgenin karakteristiğini yansıtan 10 nokta tesis edilerek GPS ölçümleri yapılmıştır. İlk periyot ölçüler Ağustos 2003 de ikinci periyot ölçüler de Mart 2004’de gerçekleştirilmiştir. 3. periyot ölçülerde ağa 6 yeni nokta daha eklenmiştir. 4. periyot ölçümler ise Ağustos 2005’te gerçekleştirilmiştir. GPS ölçüleri GAMIT GLOBK yazılım takımı ile değerlendirilmiştir. Bu makalede GPS ölçülerinden elde edilen sonuçlar irdelenecektir.Anahtar Kelimeler: Burdur Fethiye Fay Zonu, GPS, GAMIT GLOBK.Afyon, Burdur and Fethiye region, southwest of Turkey is located on a tectonically active area. According to historical recordings, the region was destructed by earthquakes many times. In Afyon region more than 35 earthquakes occurred, whose magnitudes are more than 4, from the beginning of the 20th century. Seven earthquakes recorded which magnitudes are between 5.0 and 7.5 over the last 90 years in the region between Burdur and Fethiye (October 3, 1914 Burdur: M 7.0, August 7, 1925 Dinar: M 6.0, May 12, 1971 Burdur: M 6.2, April 25, 1957 Fethiye: M 7.1, October 1, 1995 Dinar: M 6.1, December 15, 2000 Akşehir: M 5.9, February 3, 2002 Çay: M 6.0 earthquakes. To determine tectonic characteristics of the region, a network having ten sites is established. First and second campaigns were carried out with in August 2003 and March 2004. The duration of measurement in each day was about 12 hours. After first two periods, our network is extended with six new points. Then the third campaign was performed with 16 sites at two stages in 6 days. Fourth campaign is carried out in August 2005. The duration of measurement in each day was about 8 hours. The GPS measurements for four campaigns are processed by using GAMIT/GLOBK software package. This paper examines the results from the four GPS campaigns.Keywords: Burdur Fethiye fault zone, GPS, GAMIT GLOBK

Earthquake loss assessment study for Zeytinburnu district

İstanbul'da gerçekleşmesi beklenen depreme, en iyi şekilde hazırlanmak için afetin hangi bölgeleri, hangi tipteki yapıları en çok etkileyeceği ve bu afetin nasıl bir ekonomik bilanço çıkaracağını afet olmadan önce tahmin etmek gerekmektedir. Bu mekanizma dünya üzerinde deprem için sıklıkla kullanılmakta ve tatmin edici sonuçlar vermektedir. Hasar tahmini için en önemli bileşen, ilgili bölgedeki tüm olası senaryoları uygulayabilecek ve bu senaryoların ilgili bölge yapıları üzerindeki etkilerinin görülmesini sağlayacak ve bu etkilerin azaltılması için gerekli güçlendirmeleri önerecek bir yazılımlar bütünüdür. Çalışmanın amacı, İstanbul için deprem nedeniyle olası mevcut ve güncellenen riskleri ortaya koymak ve karar vericilere riski ortadan kaldırmak ya da azaltmak için geliştirecekleri zarar azaltma stratejilerinde yardımcı olabilecek güncellenen veri ve yöntemlere göre kendini yenileyebilen bir yazılım geliştirmektir. HAZUS ve MAEviz Amerika’da ulusal düzeyde kullanılan programlardır ve doğal afetlerin insan yaşamına uzun dönem sosyal ve ekonomik etkilerini azaltmada etkin bir rol oynamaktadırlar. Çalışma kapsamında geliştirilen HAZTURK adlı yazılım da bu sistemler gibi depremin toplum üzerindeki fiziksel, sosyal ve ekonomik sonuçlarını tahmin ve analiz eder. Çalışma kapsamında yapılan uygulamada pilot bölge olarak Zeytinburnu ilçesi seçilmiş ve mevcut bina verileri kullanılarak deprem hasar analizi yapılmıştır. Oluşturulan envanterin hasar görebilirlikleri (kırılganlık) saha çalışmaları ile parametrik kırılganlık metodu kullanılarak belirlenmiş ve oluşturulan hasar tahmin yazılımı kullanılarak tüm bina verilerine ait olası deprem sonrası yapısal ve ekonomik kayıplar belirlenmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Deprem hasar tahmini, coğrafi bilgi sistemleri, afet yönetimi, risk yönetimi. After the 1999 earthquakes hit Kocaeli and Düzce, several seismic loss assessment studies were performed for the city of Istanbul; many of them were carried out by the most important academicians in Turkey. However, due to the rapid changes in the exposed inventory of the city, those studies were losing accuracy. This paper presents a seismic loss assessment system that can easily reanalyze earthquake scenarios including updates in the exposed inventory. This software can be used by the government decision makers and disaster management agencies. In the analysis described in this paper, the inventory data for the Zeytinburnu District is updated and visualized by using the rapid visual screening of buildings. Results from a loss assessment for the Zeytinburnu District are presented and compared with the results from previous studies. The loss assessment analysis for this study provide estimates of building damage, retrofit cost and economic loss. The increasing interest in computer-based seismic risk and loss assessment systems imposes new research requirements on the earthquake engineering community. Such systems are being used for the important purposes of disaster response planning and formulating risk reduction policies. Their accuracy and reliability are therefore fundamental to the success of these mitigation measures. The ingredients of seismic loss assessment are hazard, vulnerability or fragility, inventory and integrated visualization (losses). Assessment of the effects of such an earthquake in Istanbul to the buildings, substructures and transportation networks will help excessively in the preparation stage before the disaster. It is obvious that the expected earthquake for the Istanbul will cause inescapable and irreversible consequences for human life and economy of the country. That is why, it should be estimated that which regions will be affected more, which structures will have more damage, and what will be the economic losses after the disaster, to be prepared as good as possible to the expected earthquake. This kind of estimation will help on preparedness for the earthquake, mitigation, early and rapid response stages after the disaster, and recovery phases of the disaster management progress. This estimation methodology is being used on all over the world and giving very convincing results on earthquake cases. The most important component for the loss estimation is a kind of software that can realize all possible earthquake scenarios for the region of interest and provide the results of the affects of those scenarios on the region and offer reinforcements to mitigate the consequences of the disaster. This study based on MAEViz, a multipurpose risk assessment tool recognized by FEMA and supported by NSF in the United States and HAZUS, FEMA's multi-hazard risk assessment tool. This new tool for Turkey comprehensively addresses all aspects of risk assessment and provides "out of the box" analysis. In this study, Zeytinburnu district was chosen as the pilot region and following the development of the system, applied for the Istanbul. The goal of this study is to introduce the current and updated risks because of the earthquake possibility in Istanbul and help the decision makers by developing a living system which, can be updated as the inventory of the region of interest and the methodology for the loss assessment updates itself. By this way it can help the decision makers on eliminating or reducing the risks. In the loss assessment process, the accuracy of the estimation is directly connected to the accuracy and the correctness of the inventory. That is why; the inventory for such an assessment study must be accurate and current. For this study, the damage and losses to be assessed can be listed for the buildings. The first step of the study was to establish an up-to-date and accurate dataset for a region like Istanbul having an outdated and limited data on buildings and perform loss estimation over the established inventory. That is why the Zeytinburnu district was chosen as the pilot study region. The fragilities of this inventory were determined by field surveying and the parametrized fragility method. Loss estimation on the building and utility network data were made using HAZTURK, the developed loss estimation software to determine the post-earthquake structural damage and economic losses. The most important aspect of the software is to enable all possible earthquake scenarios to be analyzed having tools and menus in Turkish. HAZTURK is specifically designed to meet the needs of practitioners and researchers in Turkey with a user-friendly system. Keywords: Earthquake loss assessment, geographic information systems, disaster management, risk management.

Using Mathematical Modeling for Integrating STEM Disciplines: A Theoretical Framework

The main goal of STEM education is to provide students with knowledge and skills in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering through interdisciplinary approaches. However, perspective on the nature of STEM approaches and how it should be implemented in the classrooms without losing discipline integrity are still not uncovered and stay as important challenges for both educators and researchers. In this paper, we introduce a theoretical framework that can shed light on how to engage students effectively in STEM education by providing mathematical modeling as a tool for integrating different disciplines. Thus, this framework is for designing, implementing, and evaluating mathematical modeling thinking within an interdisciplinary nature. Furthermore, we provide an example of the interdisciplinary mathematical modeling task with hypothetical student engagement in the process and analyzed the student's thinking with our framework. Although the focus of this paper is mainly about integrating mathematics and science, we believe that our framework can be applied to all STEM disciplines. We conclude that interdisciplinary mathematical modeling framework might be an important tool to overcome some of the challenges that stressed in the literature since it increases the transfer capacity of STEM-focused knowledge and skills to real-world scenarios by presenting problem situations in a real-world context

Comparison of Optical versus Ultrasonic Biometry in Keratoconic Eyes

Purpose. To compare the measurements of optical versus ultrasonic biometry devices in keratoconic eyes. Materials and Methods. Forty-two eyes of 42 keratoconus (KC) patients enrolled in the study were examined. Clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients were noted, and detailed ophthalmological examination was performed. Following Pentacam measurements, central corneal thickness (CCT), anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT), and axial length (AL) were obtained using the Lenstar and US biometer to determine the reproducibility of the measurements between the two devices in keratoconic eyes. The Bland-Altman method was used to describe the agreement between the two devices. Results. The Lenstar could not measure at least one of the biometric properties in one eye and did not automatically give the corrected ACD in 2/3 of our study population. The Lenstar measured CCT (average difference 5.4 ± 19.6 µm; ICC = 0.90; ), LT (average difference 0.13 ± 0.17 mm; ICC = 0.67; ), and AL (average difference 0.10 ± 0.76 mm; ICC = 0.75; ) thinner than US biometer, whereas it measured ACD (average difference 0.18 ± 0.17 mm; ICC = 0.85; ) deeper than US biometer in keratoconic eyes. Conclusion. Although the difference between the measurements obtained using the two devices might be clinically acceptable, US biometry and Lenstar should not be used interchangeably for biometric measurements in KC patients

Mean platelet volume in patients with retinal artery occlusion

ABSTRACT Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the mean platelet volume (MPV) of patients with retinal artery occlusion (RAO). Methods: Thirty-seven patients diagnosed with RAO and 32 control subjects were included in this retrospective study. Retinal artery occlusion was diagnosed on the basis of clinical examination and fundus fluorescein angiography. All participants underwent complete ocular examination, and MPV, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and platelet counts were recorded. RAO patient data were compared with those of the control subjects. Results: Patients with RAO had significantly higher MPV values (7.96 ± 1.2 fL) compared with control subjects (7.33 ± 0.7 fL, p<0.001). No significant difference was found with regard to platelet count between the RAO group and the control group (262 ± 70.1 × 109/L and 251 ± 56.6 × 109/L, respectively, p=0.50). MPV was an independent predictor of RAO [odds ratio (OR)=0.50; 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.28-0.89; p=0.019). Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that MPV values were significantly higher in patients with RAO, suggesting that larger platelets may contribute to the pathogenesis of the RAOs

Evaluation of Cystoid Macular Edema Using Optical Coherence Tomography and Fundus Autofluorescence after Uncomplicated Phacoemulsification Surgery

Aim. To investigate the utility of fundus autofluorescence (FAF) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) in the evaluation of cystoid macular edema (CME) following cataract surgery. Materials and Methods. Forty eyes of 29 patients undergone phacoemulsification, with posterior chamber intraocular lens implantation surgery. Central macular thickness (CMT) of the patients was evaluated using OCT and FAF preoperatively and postoperative 1st, 30th, 60th, 90th, and 180th days. Results. CME was detected in three eyes (7.5%) of two patients using OCT. Hyperautofluorescence (HAF) was detected in two of these three eyes and resolved with treatment. In the remaining 37 eyes without CME, there was a significant increase in visual acuity when compared to preoperative values () Mean macular thicknesses (MMT) of the eyes without CME were 174 ± 20 μm preoperatively and 179 ± 22 μm at day 1, 178 ± 19 μm at 1st month, and 168 ± 10 μm at 6th month postoperatively. In the eyes with CME, the MMTs, measured with OCT were 189 ± 23 μm preoperatively and 432 ± 361 on day 1, 343 ± 123 μm at 1st month, 345 ± 196 at 2nd month, and 200 ± 36 μm at 6th month postoperatively. Conclusion. We found a moderate increase in CMT in the first 3 months postoperatively, in the eyes without CME which did not cause visual disturbances. FAF is a noninvasive, rapid method for the evaluation and follow-up of CME following cataract surgery

ELEKTRONİK CİHAZLARDA ARIZA TEŞHİSİ İÇİN BİR UZMAN SİSTEM UYGULAMASI

Bir cihaz, bir yapı veya bir sistem, kendisinden beklenen fonksiyonları yerine getiremediği durumlarda birtakım arızalara yol açmaktadır. Bu arızaların bakım onarım faaliyetleri de; ilgili kurum, kuruluş veya şirketlerde bazı kayıplara (zaman, finansal vb.) sebep olmaktadır. Geliştirilen bir uzman sistem aracılığıyla etkili bir arıza teşhis sistemi kullanılarak bir makinenin herhangi bir yerindeki arızası kolayca belirlenebilir, belirlenen arıza ile ilgili hızlı ve doğru birtakım değerlendirmeler yapılabilir. Bu çalışmada, girdi ekranından yapılan tercihleri yorumlayarak arızalı cihazın tamiri konusunda önerilerde bulunan bir uzman sistem geliştirilmiştir. Geliştirilen sistem, yorumlama işleminde bilgi tabanını kullanmaktadır. Geliştirilen sistem tarafından kullanılan kural tabanı arızalı cihazların katalog bilgilerinden, servis notlarından ve “uzman” yetkili servislerin tecrübelerinden toplanarak oluşturulmuştur. Geliştirilen sistem, NetBeans 6.9.1 ortamında JAVA programlama dili kullanılarak hazırlanmıştır