Seismic Assessment of the Historical Sütlü Minaret Mosque

Historical masonry structures that connecting the past to the present have great importance because they represent the experiences and characteristics of various cultures. Therefore, the protection of historical structures is important. In this study, the structural response of the historical masonry Mosque was evaluated through dynamic analyses. For this purpose, the Sütlü Minaret Mosque which is located in Malatya, Turkey, was investigated. The three-dimensional model of the historical mosque was generated with ANSYS software. The material properties of the mosque were obtained with experimental tests. The time history analyses were used to obtain the seismic behavior of masonry mosque. In the time history analyses, six different strong ground motion records, including the 2020 Elazığ earthquake, were used. After the analysis, displacement and stress values in the mosque were given. The absolute peak displacement value among these earthquake records was obtained from the 1999 Düzce earthquake and the highest principal compressive and tensile stress values were determined for the 2010 Darfield earthquake. Also, the crack regions which occurred in the mosque after the 2020 Elazığ earthquake were compared with the dynamic analysis result of the 2020 Elazığ earthquake. The crack regions formed after the Elazığ earthquake are similar to the possible crack regions formed after the dynamic analysis

A tunable SiGe BiCMOS gain-equalizer for x-band phased-array RADAR applications

This paper presents a compact-size tunable gain-equalizer for X-Band Phased-Array RADAR applications in a 0.25μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. An isolated NMOS based variable resistance was used for the first time to tune the slope of the gain-equalizer. For NMOS, an isolated body created by a deep n-well was utilized to reduce insertion loss due to the substrate conductivity. Furthermore, the power-handling capability of the tunable gain-equalizer was improved thanks to the resistive body-floating technique. The designed tunable gain-equalizer operates in the frequency range from 8 to 12.5 GHz with a measured positive slope of 1 dB/GHz and 1 dB tunable slope. The effective chip area excluding the pads is 0.21 mm2, and the total area including pads is 0.31 mm2. To authors best knowledge, this study is the first tunable gain-equalizer in SiGe technology presented for X-band phased-array RADAR applications

Assessments of Masonry Buildings and Historical Structures during the 2020 Sivrice-Elazığ Earthquake

Turkey is located on a seismically active region. The active fault zones, primarily the North Anatolian Fault and East Anatolian Fault, constitute a center to the movements. On 24 January 2020 at local time 20:55, an earthquake of Mw = 6.8 struck Sivrice, Elazığ located in eastern part of Turkey. After this main shock, 1185 aftershocks were recorded until February 8, 2020. The main event resulted in 41 human casualties and 1632 injured. Also, 45 people were salvaged from the debris. The earthquake mostly affected to Elazığ and Malatya provinces. 633 buildings were demolished, 10492 buildings were severely damaged, 2161 buildings were moderately damaged, and 16046 buildings were slightly damaged in the affected region. This paper focus on evaluating the damages and failures of masonry, adobe, and historical structures in the affected areas around Elazığ and Malatya provinces

Evaluation of wind comfort with computational fluid dynamics simulations for pedestrian sidewalks around buildings

Wind power could be one of the most clean and powerful renewable resources for electrical energy production, but on the other hand, uncontrolled wind flow especially in urban places could cause undesired situations as damage to buildings, decrease in pedestrian comfort, environmental damage, or even life loss. Construction of high-rise buildings, widely spread structures within cities, and environmental changes forces, engineers to find quick, reliable, and also economically viable solutions during design stages, but wind comfort of sidewalks generally not considered enough even if they are located in crowded areas. The web-based computer aided engineering (CAE) program named Simscale which runs on the basis of sophisticated graphical interface was used as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to determine wind speeds under influence of buildings in the Nuh Naci Yazgan University campus. Also, field measurements carried out in campus area for a short term period were compared with long term hourly wind speed data obtained from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM) station located in Kayseri to identify most optimal wind speed data for the research area. Results of analysis showed that wind speed increased in the mostly used paths of campus, which means that the layout of buildings negatively affected the wind comfort. CFD analysis softwares could be used to determine the possible consquences of wind with less economic investment in a short time, and they could be used in accordance with comfort criterias as well as safety regulations

Bilateral Olecranon Tophaceous Gout Bursitis

In this case, we present a patient with the diagnosis of bilateral olecranon tophaceous gout. After the surgical treatment, there was no limitation of range of motion or wound problem at 6th month control

The relationship between teachers’ zest for work and teaching motivation: the mediating role of achievement goals

ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate the mediating role of achievement goals in the relationship between teachers’ zest for work and teaching motivation.MethodThe research was designed using the relational survey model. The research sample consisted of 518 teachers working in various cities in Turkey in 2023–2024 academic year fall semester. A convenience sampling method was used in sampling. Three Likert-type scales were used as data collection tools. In the data analysis, firstly, the data suitability to normal distributions was examined. As a result of the analysis, kurtosis and skewness values were examined and it was assumed that the data were normally distributed. SPSS Process extension was used to analyze the data.Results and discussionAccording to the research results, teachers’ zest for work positively and significantly predicted strong and positive achievement goals. In addition, teachers’ achievement goals significantly and positively predicted their teaching motivation. Additionally, teachers’ zest for work positively and significantly predicted their teaching motivation. Moreover, it can be inferred that achievement goals for students have a mediating role in the relationship between teachers’ zest for work and teaching motivation. In this context, it is suggested that policies that increase teachers’ teaching motivation should be prioritized

Development of an Artificial Intelligence Method to Detect COVID-19 Pneumonia in Computed Tomography Images

Introduction:This study aimed to construct an artificial intelligence system to detect Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia on computed tomography (CT) images and to test its diagnostic performance.Methods:Data were acquired between March 18-April 17, 2020. CT data of 269 reverse tran-scriptase-polymerase chain reaction proven patients were extracted, and 173 studies (122 for training, 51 testing) were finally used. Most typical lesions of COVID-19 pneumonia were la-beled by two radiologists using a custom tool to generate multiplanar ground-truth masks. Us-ing a patch size of 128x128 pixels, 18,255 axial, 71,458 coronal, and 72,721 sagittal patches were generated to train the datasets with the U-Net network. Lesions were extracted in the or-thogonal planes and filtered by lung segmentation. Sagittal and coronal predicted masks were reconverted to the axial plane and were merged into the intersect-ed axial mask using a voting scheme.Results:Based on the axial predicted masks, the sensitivity and specificity of the model were found as 91.4% and 99.9%, respectively. The total number of positive predictions has increased by 3.9% by the use of intersected predicted masks, whereas the total number of negative predic-tions has only slightly decreased by 0.01%. These changes have resulted in 91.5% sensitivity, 99.9% specificity, and 99.9% accuracy.Conclusion:This study has shown the reliability of the U-Net architecture in diagnosing typical pulmonary lesions of COVID-19 in CT images. It also showed a slightly favorable effect of the intersection method to increase the model’s performance. Based on the performance level pre-sented, the model may be used in the rapid and accurate detection and characterization of the typical COVID-19 pneumonia to assist radiologists

Low-noise amplifiers for w-band and d-band passive imaging systems in SiGe BiCMOS technology

In this paper, two wideband and low power mmwave LNAs implemented in a 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS technology are presented. The W-band LNA has 22.3 dB peak gain, 17 GHz 3-dB bandwidth (BW) and 8 mW of power consumption whereas the D-Band LNA achieves 25.3 dB peak gain, 44 GHz 3-dB BW while consuming 30 mW of power. Input and output of the LNAs are wideband matched to 50 Ω in their respective frequency bands. Using the measured gains, the effective noise bandwidths are calculated to be 33.8 GHz for the W-band and 58.9 GHz for the Dband LNAs. Measurement results indicate that the LNAs are suitable for low power and wideband radiometer systems

Antiarrhythmic Properties of Beta Blockers: Focus on Nebivolol

Beta-blockers are commonly used medications for cardiovascular diseases. Beta-blockers are effective antiarrhythmic agents, and they are class 2 agents in the Vaughan-Williams classification. In this review, we first attempt to mention the physiology of beta-adrenergic activation in the myocardium and the role of excessive beta-adrenergic activation in arrythmiagenesis. Then, we will summarize the pharmacological properties of beta blockers and their use in specific arrhythmias. Special emphasis will be given to nebivolol, a new generation cardioselective beta-blocker with vasodilator activity, given the limited data regarding its use in arrhythmias

Which factors help to determine the long-term response to first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma: A Turkish multi-centre study

Many developing countries lack access to recommended first-line treatments for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) or ICI-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) combinations. As a result, predictive markers are necessary to identify patients who may benefit from single-agent TKIs for long-term response. This study aims to identify such parameters. This was a multi-centre, retrospective study of patients with mRCC who were undergoing first-line treatment with sunitinib or pazopanib. Patients who had been diagnosed with mRCC and had not experienced disease progression for 36 months or more were deemed to have achieved a long-term response. Predictive clinical and pathological characteristics of patients who did not experience long-term disease progression were investigated. A total of 320 patients from four hospitals were included in the study. The median age of the patients was 60 years (range 20-89 years). According to the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) risk classification, 109 patients were classified as having favourable risk and 211 were in the intermediate-poor risk group. The median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for all patients were 12.5 months and 76.4 months, respectively. In the long-term responder’s group, the median PFS was 78.4 months. Among all patients, prior nephrectomy, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status (PS) <1, and the absence of brain metastasis were predictive factors for long-term response. For patients in the favourable risk group, the lack of brain metastasis was a predictor of long-term response. In the intermediate-poor risk group, prior nephrectomy and ECOG PS <1 were predictive factors for long-term response. Some individuals with mRCC may experience a durable response to TKIs. The likelihood of a long-term response can be determined by factors such as nephrectomy, ECOG PS < 1, and the absence of brain metastases