Keynote Lecture – The Interplay of Multiple Hazards and Urban Development: The context of Istanbul

Tomorrow’s Cities is the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Urban Disaster Risk Hub – an interdisciplinary research hub with the aim to catalyse a transition from crisis management to multi-hazard risk-informed and inclusive planning in four cities in low-and-middle income countries. Istanbul in Turkey is one of the four cities investigated. It is one of the largest urban agglomerations in Europe where more than 15 million people reside in more than 1 million buildings. Considering that the population was 4.75 million in 1980, Istanbul’s urban sprawl was inevitable. Due to an imbalance between the population growth and housing supply, Istanbul’s urbanization was shaped by illegal construction processes producing the gecekondus in almost every part of the city (Gencer and Mentese, 2016). Unplanned urban expansion was so rapid that the urban master plan of 1980, which set the limits and strategies for urban development, became completely invalid by 1989 (Tapan, 1998). This situation led to the development of a new urban master plan in 1994 that included geoscientific analysis, and which highlighted the possibility of losses due to an earthquake on the segments of the North Anatolian Fault in the Marmara Sea. Uncontrolled and unplanned development continued in Istanbul until 1999 when two major earthquakes hit the region causing at least 18.000 deaths and $16 billion economic loss. These events changed the authorities’ perspective to earthquake risk and its mitigation. As a result, the 1998 earthquake resistant design code (published one year before the 1999 earthquakes) was widely embraced and implemented. Furthermore, several urban transformation projects have taken place in the last 20 years for reducing disaster risk. These have had varied success, with research to date showing that areas selected for urban transformation were often chosen on the basis of land value rather than hazard risk, and that a pro-poor approach is missing. Despite these efforts, Istanbul’s earthquake risk remains high. Furthermore, recent urban development plans are seeing the city expand into undeveloped lands to the west, increasing exposure to new hazards, namely flash flooding and landslides. The combined impact of these hazards is not evenly distributed, and the associated risks are heightened by poor infrastructural resilience and social vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is crucial to integrate different types of hazards and risks into the urban development context for future scenarios, so that a physically and socio-economically safer development that prioritizes the wellbeing of local communities can be facilitated. This presentation summarises the research conducted in Istanbul over the first 18 months of the Tomorrow’s Cities Project by a consortium of Turkish and UK researchers. This research spans the better characterisation of earthquake and landslide hazards, development of analysis methods for predicting the response of case study buildings to multiple hazards and a Bayesian network based approach for assessing road infrastructure resilience under multiple hazard scenarios. Furthermore, plans for building a Resilient Urban Development Decision Support Environment (RUD-DSE) for communicating the relevance of this research on future urban planning is described

BKV Agnoprotein Interacts with α-Soluble N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Fusion Attachment Protein, and Negatively Influences Transport of VSVG-EGFP

Background: The human polyomavirus BK (BKV) infects humans worldwide and establishes a persistent infection in the kidney. The BK virus genome encodes three regulatory proteins, large and small tumor-antigen and the agnoprotein, as well as the capsid proteins VP1 to VP3. Agnoprotein is conserved among BKV, JC virus (JCV) and SV40, and agnoprotein-deficient mutants reveal reduced viral propagation. Studies with JCV and SV40 indicate that their agnoproteins may be involved in transcription, replication and/or nuclear and cellular release of the virus. However, the exact function(s) of agnoprotein of BK virus remains elusive. Principal Findings: As a strategy of exploring the functions of BKV agnoprotein, we decided to look for cellular interaction partners for the viral protein. Several partners were identified by yeast two-hybrid assay, among them a-SNAP which is involved in disassembly of vesicles during secretion. BKV agnoprotein and a-SNAP were found to partially co-localize in cells, and a complex consisting of agnoprotein and a-SNAP could be co-immunoprecipitated from cells ectopically expressing the proteins as well as from BKV-transfected cells. The N-terminal part of the agnoprotein was sufficient for the interaction with a-SNAP. Finally, we could show that BKV agnoprotein negatively interferes with secretion of VSVG-EGFP reporter suggesting that agnoprotein may modulate exocytosis. Conclusions: We have identified the first cellular interaction partner for BKV agnoprotein. The most N-terminal part of BKV agnoprotein is involved in the interaction with a-SNAP. Presence of BKV agnoprotein negatively interferes with secretion of VSVG-EGFP reporter

Ostracod fauna and its environmental characteristics of kÖprÜkÖy/Erzurum (East Anatolia) Region [KÖPrÜKÖY/erzurum (dogu anadolu) yÖresi ostrakod faunasi ve ortamsal Özellikleri]

Study was carried out within Horasan formation around Köprüköy located in the east of Erzurum This formation is available in the region of Erzurum-Pasinler-Horasan forming the northest where neo-tectonic sediments are surfaced in East Anatolia. The unit is composed of pebble stones, clays and marl iteration. Ostracod, gastropod and pelecypod species were observed on the levels of clay stone with soft clasts and marl taken from the area. Generally, ostracod species which are unique to Ponto-Caspian basin were described in these units within the scope of the study. These are such ostracod species as Amnicythere idonea Mandelstam, Markova, Rozyeva and Stepanajtys, Candona (Caspiocypris) erzurumensis Freels, Candona (Caspiocypris) araxica Freels, Candona (Caspiocypris) aff. alta (Zalanyi), Candona (Lineocypris) aff. granulosa Zalanyi, Bakunella cf. dorsoarcuata (Zalanyi), Bakunella cf. subtriangularis (Sveyer), Candona (Candona) lycica Freels, Candona (Candona) Armenia Freels, Candona (Candona) aff. elongata (Svejer), Fossilyocypris sarizensis (Safak, Nazik and Senol). There are also such micro mollusc species as Gyraulus inornatus, Dreissena polymorpha available in the sequence. Among these-genera; Candona (Candona) fresh water, Candona (Caspiocypris), Candona (Lineocypris), Fossilyocypris fresh-brackish water (oligohaline), Bakunella characterizes rarely fresh water,mostly brackish water, Amnicythere characterizes brackish water, Gyraulus, Dreissena characterize fresh water conditions. Ostracod fauna, determined in this study, indicates a group clearly supporting these comments in terms of the relation of age and environment and the age of the formation is Late Miocene-Pliocene according to the fauna

Evidence of orbital forcing in lake-level fluctuations in the Middle Eocene oil shale-bearing lacustrine successions in the Mudurnu-Goynuk Basin, NW Anatolia (Turkey)

WOS: 000307427000005Mudurnu-Goynuk basin of the Sakarya Zone in NW Anatolia comprises ca. 1500 m thick Paleocene-Eocene terrestrial to shallow marine succession overlying the Late Cretaceous deeper marine progradational fore-arc sediments. Formed in a foreland setting in relation to southerly situated izmir-Ankara suture zone, this terrestrial succession (regionally known as Kizilcay group) comprises a thin (<200 m) oil shale-bearing lacustrine section with very good cyclic patterns that potentially serves the quantification of stratigraphy and enlightening the origin of cyclicities of various hierarchy. Our detailed fades analysis on three correlative measured sections showed that mudstone, oil shale and thinner limestone alternations characterize the relatively deeper part of the Eocene lake with probable marine intervention, while thicker limestone, coal, marl and occasional oil shale alternations typify the southern relatively freshwater shoal areas. These facies are frequently organized as meter-scale symmetric to asymmetric transgressive-regressive cycles. Spectral analysis of the mudstone beds and the cycles within the lacustrine succession strongly indicates the occurrence of full bands of Milankovitch with the shortest precession cycle (19 ka) at ca. 2.30 m. Our observations further revealed quite rhythmic thin couplets with estimated durations of 365-730 yr that might represent abrupt climatic changes during deposition. On the other hand, longer duration (ca. 1 Ma) of shoaling and deepening trends in the studied sections were attributed basically to varying subsidence due to tectonic loading in the southerly suture zone. Lastly, regarding the distribution of depositional environments we propose that the oil shale exploration activities should be carried out within a 20 km wide E-W running belt while the southern limits of this belt is more prolific for coal resources. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Commission for Scientific Research Projects of the Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, TurkeyEskisehir Osmangazi University [200715024]; TUBITAKTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [104Y153]This paper is based on the findings of a scientific Project with the Number 200715024 supported by the Commission for Scientific Research Projects of the Eskisehir Osmangazi University, Eskisehir, Turkey. Logistic support is also provided by another Project (No: 104Y153) from TUBITAK

The first assessment of a dog bite prevention program for pre-school children in Turkey

Child safety around dogs is a serious public health concern, in particular in countries where free-ranging dogs and dog-mediated urban rabies are an issue, such as Turkey. The present study is the first to investigate the effectiveness of a dog bite prevention program in pre-school children in Turkey. In this study, pre-school students aged between 3 and 6 years (N = 117) received an interactive education program. The program consisted of an interactive oral presentation, a drama session (“Being a Tree”), and a practical session, i.e. meeting a dog. Two different questionnaires were administered to children before (PrE), immediately after (PE0), and one week after the program (PE1): (i) the Dog-Human Interaction questionnaire and (ii) the Contexts for Approaching Dogs questionnaire. Significant improvements in the scores in both questionnaires were found between the evaluations before and after the education. Moreover, older students had significantly higher scores in both questionnaires during PE0 and PE1. The majority of the students were found to be successful in the evaluation of the “Being a Tree&apos;&apos; concept during PE0 and PE1. The results of this study show that the interactive dog bite prevention program can increase the awareness and knowledge of pre-school children on dog behavior. Findings also suggest that age should be considered when designing a dog bite education program. As being a tree concept can be learned by children from all age groups, it can be a useful and beneficial component of dog bite prevention programs in countries having a big population of free-ranging dogs. © 2021 Elsevier Inc