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Coordination of Directional Over Current Relays (DOCR) is an important issue in the protection of power systems. In this paper, DOCR coordination, which has the problem of nonlinear and high constraints, is discussed The object function, reported in the literature, has been re-written by adding relay setting constraints multiplied by a weight factor to ensure optimum coordination of DOCRs. At first, the Evaporation Rate Controlled Water Cycle Algorithm (ER-WCA) and Harris Hawk Optimization (HHO) algorithms were used to compute the optimum coordination of the DOCR problem. The proposed algorithms are applied to the 9-bus test system. In addition, the results obtained using ER-WCA and HHO were compared with those obtained using other algorithms in the literature. Then, a new adaptive protection method, which adapts to changing power system conditions in power grids with Distributed Generation (DG) system, is proposed. In this new adaptive protection method, the HHO algorithm has been used to ensure optimum coordination of DOCRs. Also, in this new adaptive protection method, a structure with Fault Current Limiting (FCL) mechanism, which determines the critical fault point based on the both of the current and voltage index, is proposed in power systems. Then, by applying this new adaptive protection method to 10 bus Turkey distribution system, the effectiveness of the study was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the precautions taken in building industry in order to minimize the results of increasing energy consumption in the world is energy efficient design of the utilization process of the buildings. In order to ensure energy efficiency in buildings, heat loss through building envelope is tried to be minimized. In Turkey, recently, external thermal insulation applications have been proliferating with the effect of legal obligations and the needs of providing fuel preservation within residences. In this paper, it is researched how hygrothermal performance of the existing building walls would be affected by external thermal insulation applications. In the first chapter of this paper, external thermal insulation composite system (ETICS) applications observed in Istanbul Capa district are dealt with. In this region, it has seen that there are impermeable coatings on the existing wall surface of buildings where external thermal insulation is applied. In the second chapter, changes in water content, relative humidity rate and temperature of different wall types are calculated via simulation method. According to the results, when thermal insulation materials are applied on impermeable coatings on the walls, the moisture amount in the wall layers may reach critical levels in winter and this situation can cause deteriorations in the wall layers in the long term. For these reasons, it is important to handle external thermal insulation applications on existing buildings with a holistic approach and expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilient modulus is an important design parameter for highway pavement structures because it represents the structural strength of pavement layers. The resilient modulus depends on the factors such as applied stress, loading time, water content, dry density and gradation. This paper demonstrates the applicability of regression methodology for estimating the (Mr) Resilient modulus of pavement layers using the results of dynamic triaxial tests. Aggregate samples were collected from several different quarries of central Anatolia. All of the aggregate sources were igneous rock (basalt, and trachy-basalt). Initial work content of triaxial tests to obtain the resilient modulus of cylindrical aggregate samples. Than new mathematical model proposed by using the results of dynamic triaxial tests. In the regression model; aggregate physical properties, aggregate mixture properties and loading factors (a total of 8 variables) which are used as input parameters and the resilient modulus of the aggregate mixture obtained as output. In order to compare the effectiveness of the new method, coefficients for the Uzan constitutive model were also determined for laboratory testing and were compared with the approach described in this paper. Performance parameters of R²:0.98 and Standard error: 10.51 was obtained from model prediction. These results are quite sufficient, and the regression model assumed the resilient response to be like a function by using the stated material parameters. So, this approach makes it possible to estimate the resilient modulus of the different aggregates samples in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although sufficient amounts of wheat are produced in Turkey, which ranks first in the world in terms of flour export, wheat imports negatively affect the sector. In general, farmers in Turkey produce in small quantities in small production area, and deliver their products with small capacity vehicles and multiple trips. Purchased wheat is classified according to quality characteristics in collection silos, and wheat purchase is limited by harvest period. On the other hand, shipments to the factory from collection silos can be made all year around. In this paper, a 0-1 mixed integer programming formulation for wheat supply network design is proposed to supply sufficient wheat with the desired quality and lowest cost. The proposed formulation uses vehicles with different capacities and reduces the number of trips by choosing the appropriate vehicle for the load amount. In addition to the road, the formulation also considers the rail option. In its current form, the considered problem is described as a wheat supply network design problem with capacity-constraint multi-period multi-stage multi-modal multi-product. The proposed formulation has been tested using real data in a wheat flour factory operating in Konya. The formulation, which was run for three different scenarios of the company, provided sufficient and desired quality wheat by optimizing transportation costs. Computational results recommend the rail transport option in some regions. The results of the formulation are thought to be of a nature that guides the company's tactical and strategic plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Waterproofing applications in buildings cause environmental impacts due to energy and resource consumption in the production and construction processes of materials. Considering tons of waterproofing materials are applied every year, it is clear that their possible environmental impacts besides physical, chemical, etc. performance characteristics of these materials should also be evaluated. In the article, the production and construction process environmental impacts of the waterproofing systems commonly applied to conventional and inverted flat roofs in Turkey are investigated by life cycle assessment method. The environmental impact analyses of the applications determined for conventional and inverted flat roofs are carried out with SimaPro simulation program, which analyzes life cycle of products and services. According to the results obtained; the total environmental impacts during the production and construction processes are the highest for the mechanically fastened PVC based waterproofing system in conventional flat roof while they are the lowest for the bitumen based liquid waterproofing system in the inverted flat roof. The research results will help architects and engineers preferring waterproofing applications with low environmental impact. Additionally, the paper will also be a guide for future studies where different applications to be carried out in other building subsystems will be investigated environmentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying trees by images of barks via Deep Learning method has a potentially useful contribution to many areas, such as revision of forests, preparation of sustainable management plans for forest resources, operations and processing of trees for paper and furniture industries, preservation of trees having vital importance to environments, definition of species and sub-species of fruits for orcharding, for amateur purposes, and entirely for handling tree sources efficiently. Even though the current progress in Deep Learning has proven to be impressive, the lack or insufficiency of datasets has limited the use of Deep Learning on identification of tree species from barks images. In order make contribution to the researches on this field, and to prove that tree identification via images of barks with high accuracy is possible, 24686 bark images of 59 tree species from different parts of Turkey has been collected within a span of a year, and the data set is used for this work. With the use of seven pre-trained convolutional neural networks, AlexNet, DenseNet201, ResNet18, ResNet50, ResNet101, VGG16, VGG19. It has been demonstrated that identification of tree species by images of barks is possible through transfer learning method. Additionally, it has been inferred that transfer learning method provides fast and accurate solutions to classification problems. Furthermore, the impact of the depth, layer, number of parameters and batch size of the networks has been analyzed. While the average accuracy of all the networks, regarding the ratio of number of images and training data, is between 93.21% and 95.89%, the average of accuracy of the two most successful networks is 99.46%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a cable-stayed bridge and a suspension bridge with closer main span lengths are considered to determine the effects of near-fault and far-fault ground motions on the structural responses of these bridges under asynchronous excitations. While the Tatara Cable-Stayed Bridge constructed in Japan is preferred as a cable-stayed bridge model, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge constructed in Turkey is considered as a suspension bridge model. While the geometric nonlinearity including P-delta effects resulting from the self weight of the suspension bridge is considered in the dynamic analysis of the suspension bridge, the nonlinearity of the cable-stayed bridge cables are taken into account with the equivalent modulus of elasticity. The results show that the traveling wave has a complicated effect on the structural responses like displacements and internal forces, and underestimates or overestimates the structural responses depending on the wave propagation velocity and the considered structural responses. It is also observed that the increment of the responses for the infinitely propagating near fault ground motions with respect to the farfault ground motions are obviously larger than the incerement obtained for the 250 m/s wave propagation velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an improved method for detecting light-flicker from multiple flicker sources which has a significant detrimental effect on power quality for power systems is proposed. The proposed method calculates the instantaneous flicker value directly from the frequency spectrum of the voltage signal unlike the standard IEC-61000-4-15 flickermeter known to give erroneous results in case of deviation of the fundamental frequency. Besides, owing to spectral corrections, this can also obtain the correct flicker value when the fundamental frequency deviates. Tests with synthetic signals have been generated in the presence of a single interharmonic frequency for different values, multiple frequency components and fundamental frequency deviations respectively, and then the instantaneous flicker values calculated by this method have been compared with IEC-flickermeter results. The method has been also used to calculate the flicker of field data obtained from busbars feeding electric arc furnace plants in the Electricity Transmission System of Turkey and the flicker-severity results have been compared with the results of the IEC-flickermeter. The advantage of the method is that it can swiftly and precisely estimate the flicker because of the reduction of it to arithmetic operations on Fast Fourier Transform(FFT) samples already calculated in many power quality analyzers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Turkey has gone through great changes with "Health Transformation Program" and made a substantial transformation. However, much statistical data have been recorded regarding the practices and behavior of hospitals in Turkey since the implementation of health transformation program. While these records pointed to various problems arising from the reforms, a methodological analysis is rarely found. Based on five years of province level health care data, this paper analyzes the productive efficiency of Turkey's health care sector in the post reform period. Efficiency measures are calculated by a nonparametric approach known as data envelopment analysis. Productivity between the years 2011 and 2015 is measured by the Malmquist index. Furthermore, in order to classify the provinces with the assessment value of 1; the super-efficiency model is applied for further sorting. According to the computed Malmquist index, results show that 51 provinces increased their productivity however 30 provinces decreased their productivity in Turkey's health care sector. On the other hand, by the evaluation of the results, it is seen that the level of economic development and the efficiency performance of hospitals could not necessarily act cooperatively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, unit commitment problem which is an important subject in power system optimization, is solved by using dynamic programming, Lagrange relaxation, and simulated annealing methods. Dynamic programming method evaluates possible unit commitment schedules associated with decision made in the proceeding step by considering all constraints before searching for a schedule that yields the minimum cost. Lagrangian relaxation method, which is based on mathematical optimization, presents a solution for unit commitment problem. Simulated annealing is a method which refers to the process of heating up a solid to a high temperature followed by slow cooling achieved by decreasing the temperature of the environment in steps and gives feasible solutions for optimization problems. In the simulations made by using MATLAB®, the operation conditions and total costs of the units are found by using three different solving methods. The solutions are given in the tables and methods used are compared. Four-unit in Tuncbilek thermal plant which is in Kutahya region, Turkey, are used as an example for the unit commitment problem. The data used in this paper is taken from (TEPC) Turkish Electric Power Company and (EGC) Electricity Generation Company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Turkey, majority of the building stock is known to be inadequate against earthquake and is required to be strengthened. Cast-in-place reinforced concrete (RC) infill walls, connected to the frame systems by use of epoxy glued anchorages, improve the behavior of the building significantly. However, requirements of this technique such as evacuation of the building and converts it to a construction area for a long time have directed the researchers developing occupant friendly, economic and structurally effective strengthening techniques. The principle of the technique presented in this paper is based on bonding strip concrete panels on some of the plastered hollow brick infill walls available in the building such that they will behave as RC infill walls. For this purpose, seven plastered hollow brick infill wall specimens with a scale of 1/2 were tested under reversed cyclic lateral loading. Six wall specimens were strengthened with strip concrete/reinforced concrete (RC) panels. Test results showed that application of concrete panels increased lateral strength of the test specimens and improved their behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) National 100 Index retrospective predictability was tested by using the Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). In addition, contribution of the inputs to the model for index forecasting was evaluated on the basis of prediction performance. The most important factor to successful stock market prediction is achieving best results using minimum required input data and the least complex stock market model. In this context, we aim to prove consistent prediction of ISE 100 index without having to use a lot of input variables with ANFIS. For this purpose, about four and a half year period was chosen as the analysis period; two input variables (the exchange rate and repurchasing interest rate) and three input variables (the exchange rate, repurchasing interest rate and trading volume) were established in two different models. Consistent prediction results have been obtained with high predictive factor with both of the models. As a result, that is concluded that the ISE 100 Index has short-term predictability using only two input variables, without the need for a complex model with ANFIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper a solution method is proposed for emphasizing the importance of costumer needs at the starting of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) application when there are multi costumer groups. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) steps are added to an algorithm in which an Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach is used in QFD. The need for adding DEA steps is determining the efficient customer requirements when there are multi customer groups. This solution approach is called DEANP which aggregates data DEA to ANP. The relative importance values of product technical requirements are calculated with this algorithm and application is performed at a manufacturer of white goods company in Turkey. The fact that using DEANP instead of ANP produced more powerful solutions is also confirmed by marketing specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, Turkey's Carbonization Index (v) depending on the basic energy indicator has determined as an analytical equation. In this paper, artificial neural networks (ANN) which is quite often in recent years and the possibility of applying to many fields, are used to obtain analytical expressions. Carbonization Index is defined the amount of CO2 emissions per energy consumption. This parameter is an important for Turkey because of has signed the Kyoto protocol, February 2009. According to the results, accuracy of the carbonization index formulated empirical was obtained as R²= 1. It is expected that this study will be helpful in demonstrating carbonization index for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historical town of Elmalı, situated on the Taurus Mountains near Antalya, attracts attention by its wellpreserved urban establishment. This paper considers the Urban Conservation Project of the Historical Site of Elmalı Town that was formulated in the Spring Term of 2005-2006 Academic Year at the Graduate Program in Restoration at Istanbul Technical University. An intensive research on the historical, cultural and architectural background of Elmalı was carried out in order to understand the relations of the physical environment of the site and the urban identity. The collaborative observations on the site and the analysis of the site based on certain categories were then developed into proposals to rehabilitate the site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kula is a historical small town in Aegean Anatolia, which has been under preservation since the 1980s. This paper analyzes the morphology of Kula in order to understand the transformation of its spaces that are considered to be public. These spaces are the social and spatial landmarks of the town, which are the old mosques and churches, the common open spaces, and the public fountains that were closed in the 1970s. By employing the space syntax analysis developed by the group led by Bill Hillier and Julianne Hanson, Kula is examined in three time periods in the 20th century. The first period is between the 1900s and the 1930s, the era that when Kula still manifested the formal characteristics of an Ottoman town. The second period is between the 1930s and the 1970s, the era when the new public institutions and the Izmir-Ankara highway were built. The third and the last period is between the 1970s and the end of the 20th century. This is when the preservation regulations were implemented on the town and it is also the time frame when Kula grew twice its size of the 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]