Lately, an increase in the number of floors in structures that have been built on valuable land can be noticed. While building these structures, a retaining wall is created, which is necessary for a safe foundation, yet this also causes the formation of a closed pool-like area. If the excavation site during construction is filled with water due to various reasons, basement floors, which form closed volume, may move upwards. The same problem may also be experienced in all elements that are underground in flood susceptible areas. Unfortunately, engineers often overlook this potential problem while focusing on the completed structure weight. This flotation damage should not be confused with liquefaction of ground that occurs as a result of unexpected movements in the structure due to the loss of the bearing capacity of the ground. The necessary calculations to avoid this risk are only conditioned for port and coastal structures in national standards and codes. Hence, this study aims to demonstrate the conditions leading to flotation in structures and necessary precautions to avoid them.

For a construction project to be successfully completed, project objectives must be met within a specified time and budget. ‘Delay’ and ‘cost-overrun’ in the construction projects are two significant defects, as they can negatively affect projects by disputes among stakeholders, work quality and safety level in the project. Hence, it is crucial to have further investigation on these especially in regions where less considered. To overcome such problems and inconsistencies in the construction industry of Northern Iraq, major factors and causes of delay and cost overrun were investigated in a considerable number of construction companies in the region. Sixty-one delay factors and forty-two cost overrun factors were considered in the study. A questionnaire survey was administered, and a quantitative analysis was conducted by SPSS. Major delay and cost overrun factors were determined and the three major causes of delays were found as “security measures”, “high number of sub-contracts by the same contractor”, and “poor labor productivity”. Similarly, three major factors causing cost-overrun were “inadequate labor and skill availability”, “inappropriate contractor policies”, and “domination of construction industry by foreign firm and aids”. It was also found that the majority of problems are raised by owners and contractors. An improvement framework was finally proposed based on findings.

Relative storey drifts is limited by earthquake codes for earthquake safety of structures. In 2016 Turkish Earthquake Code (TEC 2016), which has yet in draft, the criteria for delimitation of relative story drifts have been specified. Compared to the previous ones, this earthquake code included the use of flexible jointed infill wall - frame joints which affect the relative storey drift limit. In this study, the limitation rules of the effective relative storey drifts are explained in detail in the case of the use of flexible jointed infill wall-frame joints specified in the section "Calculation and Limitation of Effective Relative Storey Drifts" of the TEC 2016. In addition, the maximum allowable effective storey drifts are calculated separately for each province center.

Transportation planning process, which requires a multi-criteria decision making a very specific decision, is one of the most important issues of metropolitan cities. There are many projects in the field of rail systems in Istanbul and some of these projects are monorail projects. Through this way, urban transportation is supported by various types of public transportation. However, it is not possible to allocate the resources to all projects at the same time. This is affected by several criteria, especially by limited budgetary constraints. In this study, monorail projects were evaluated in accordance with urban needs of Istanbul and the planning was done under three different budget scenarios. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used in the evaluation process of the projects and the goal programming (GP) model was used for the selection process. As a result, the selection of the monorail projects planned for Istanbul was made.

In our century, all economical social, cultural and touristic facilities are available through the rapid, confident and satisfactory transporting. Transportation policies are of great importance in terms of increasing productivity. Country s transport system plays an important role in revitalizing the social, cultural and economic activities of countries. Therefore, the efficient use of resources, the rapid distribution of goods and services, the development of domestic and foreign trade will only be possible with careful planning of transport and the establishment of a regular transport network. It is desirable that the transport system to be selected for passenger and freight transport should be fast, economic, safe, and environmentally friendly systems suitable for the country conditions. Transportation policies are determined in the direction of these expectations. Besides the positive results of transport systems, it brings some problems. The most important of these problems is related to traffic safety, which is also the main topic of study. There are some studies on road safety in the World and in Europe. These studies; the development of new technologies, such as the provision of road signs and traffic penalty analogies, the restriction of alcohol content, the reduction of the number of lives lost in road traffic accidents, the development of electronic driving licenses, the limitation of intelligent transportation systems and the speed of vehicles. The aim of this study is to examine the policies to increase traffic safety. As a result of this study, the applications of the policies for traffic safety and the deficiencies of the implementation point in the country of Turkey are determined and suggested.

Due to increased competition, companies must reduce delivery and costs on time and provide the desired product characteristics. This study was carried out in a firm that manufactures napkin machines according to the order. The most important problem is that the suppliers cannot deliver to customers on time. For effective production planning, it is necessary to use the correct operation times for each machine used. The times were estimated by using the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach and the Taguchi Design of Experiment was used to estimate the optimal combination of ANN parameters. According to the results of the research, it is found that the number of layers and neurons have significant influence. By using the ANN method, the time spent in parameter design is effectively reduced and the efficiency of the algorithm is increased. Estimation performance is compared with the statistical analysis. This model proved to be statistically reliable in estimating operation times. Thus, the operators will be able to estimate the processing times for new designs.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is increasing in parallel with population surplus. Removal of this waste is essential due to not only bad smell and image pollution but also the formation of dangerous methane gas during the disposal. Methane can be used as an energy source because of its calorific value. Waste management strategies aiming at converting domestic wastes from a threat in terms of environment, human health, and transforming wastes into an input for the economy need to be widespread in Çukurova Region. In this study, the potential of MSW in Çukurova region is presented according to the base year of 2014 data using the projection of population who are supposed to live in this region. For this evaluation, LandGEM modeling tool is used, and the projected gas generation is provided. Since there is a disposal facility established in Adana, the parameters used for modelling are different for Adana and Mersin. A bioreactor was established in Adana Metropolitan Municipality Integrated Solid Waste Disposal Facility thus wet inventory landfill type is chosen when modeling the landfill gas (LFG) generation. On the contrary, inventory conventional landfill type is chosen for Mersin. Results have shown that the electricity generation of Çukurova region could reach approximately 55 MW maximum capacity in case of using suitable disposal plants.

It is well known that high temperatures, which change the rheological properties of the drilling fluid and can frequently cause problems in deep wells, is a major problem during drilling. The importance of the estimation and control of the rheological parameters of the drilling fluid and the hydraulics of the well increases as the depth of the well drilled is being increased to explore new oil, gas or geothermal reserves. Since it is difficult to measure these parameters with standard field and laboratory viscometers, different conventional measurements and regression-analysis techniques are routinely used to approximate the true rheological parameters. In this study, water-based drilling fluid was initially prepared and rheological properties of the fluids were measured under elevated temperatures using high temperature rheometer (Fann Model 50 SL). Then, the shear stresses of drilling fluid are predicted using artificial neural network (ANN) method depending on the elevated temperature and shear rate. The results obtained from the high temperature rheometer and artificial neural network were compared with each other and analyzed. Consequently, it is observed that the artificial neural network could be used with good engineering accuracy to directly estimate the shear stress of drilling fluids without complex procedures. The testing process shows that the average percentage error was found to be approximately 2% for the prediction of shear stress values. Hence, rheological parameters of the drilling fluid could be determined quickly and controllability was facilitated using artificial neural network structure developed.

Pile loop knitted fabrics including the form-fitting properties of single jersey are much popular and generally used in clothing such as leisurewear, sportswear, sock etc. though they are terry fabric and the using with the aim of drying expectation. In this study, water absorption properties of pile loop knitted fabrics were investigated in a moisture management tester. For this purpose, twelve pile loop knitted fabrics were obtained by using 100% carded cotton ring spun yarns with Ne 30, Ne 24 yarn numbers as pile yarn, and 100% polyester filament yarn with 70 denier and 90 denier as ground yarn at three different sinker heights which are 2.2 mm, 2.5 mm and 2.8 mm. After knitting, pile loop knit fabrics were dyed in the same processes including scouring, dying, and washing processes. Physical properties of the fabrics were measured according to relevant standards. As for absorption properties of the fabrics were determined according to AATCC 195 standard in SDL Atlas Moisture Management Tester. The study revealed that bottom absorption rate and spreading speed is higher than top absorption rate and spreading speed for all pile loop knitted fabrics. The pile loop knitted fabrics having higher pile show slightly better absorption rate in comparison the pile loop knitted fabrics having lower pile. For different pile heights, top absorption rate is less influenced by pile yarn count whereas bottom absorption rate much affected. Liquid transport capability (OWTC) of the pile loop knitted fabrics containing coarse pile yarn in low sinker height is better, whereas it is better in the fabrics containing fine pile yarn in high sinker height. Moisture management performance (OMMC) is higher in the fabrics having low sinker height, fine ground and pile yarn.

The rubber and plastics sectors have been developing in both 19th and 20th centuries. The most of the developments have been realized in the 20th century. As a result of this, the need for petrochemical products has increased day by day. Synthetic rubber is used to protect vehicle tires, automotive parts, white goods, insulation materials and especially bridges, highways, viaducts and nuclear facilities requiring high elastic modulus from seismic and acoustical effects. Rubber type materials are preferred in many engineering applications due to due to their sufficient properties such as high elasticity. The importance of the study carried out in the rubber industry in order to improve the performance characteristics of the material as well as to increase the production efficiency and reduce the cost is increasing day by day. In order to remove or reduce the harmful effects of carbon black, which is used as a common filler the effects of additives obtained from some biological wastes such as banana peels instead of carbon black, on the physical and mechanical properties of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber have been investigated. The results were evaluated considering MDR and Soxhlet extraction test results applied on rubber samples.

The technology aims to respond to ever-increasing needs day by day is in a progressing development. One of the basic and most important components of technology is material. Nowadays, as an alternative to conventional engineering materials, multi-functional new generation competitive materials are obtained by adding new features to existing materials or developing new materials in order to meet the demands of the present and future. In this respect, the negative Poisson’s ratio (auxetic) materials are one of the most widespread research subjects recently. The auxetic structure and materials, originally found in nature, have been observed to separate from traditional (positive Poisson’s ratio) materials with various mechanical properties, mainly deformation mechanisms, thanks to their unique microstructures. In this study, auxetic feature is investigated and researches for adaptation of the auxetic feature to various science and technology fields are compiled.

Waste management of dairy products is an important topic for both economic and environmental aspects. In order to remove or reduce the harmful effects of carbon black used as a filler material, the effects of polymers obtained by using some biological wastes such as shelf-life passed milk instead of carbon black on the physical and mechanical properties of ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber have been investigated. Moving Die Rheometer and Soxhlet extraction tests were applied to the obtained compound and the results were evaluated. MDR test results showed that the scorch time of the samples increased by 10% SP filler, and Soxhlet test results were in line with MDR test. Mechanical analysis showed that the addition of casein polymer improved the elongation at break values of the samples. The tests were concluded that the best resulting sample is 10% SP. FTIR result shows that the casein polymer is chemically bonded to the EPDM rubber. The results showed that the prepared bio-based filler could be used as an alternative and non-hazardous filler.

Restrictions on pesticides used in greenhouses around the world have led investigators and employees to take advantage of renewable energy sources in agriculture. In this study, solar panels (photovoltaic battery) and their us in soil disinfection in greenhouses have been discussed as a use of renewable energy sources in agriculture. Soil disinfection can be done by placing the resistance wires with low electricity consumption (25 W m-1) and increasing the soil temperature to the required levels by using the electricity obtained from the solar panels. Thus, soil disinfection can be achieved by increasing the soil temperature. With high temperatures the duration of soil disinfection can be shortened considerably. Solarization application made with transparent plastic covering that is covered on greenhouse soil will also increase the success of disinfection. These practices are implemented in summer, when there is no production in the greenhouse and the weather is hot. The use of solar panels in the autumn, winter and spring months of production in the greenhouse will be for different purpose. The resulting electrical energy can also provide the energy of the ventilators used for forced ventilation of the greenhouse. It can also be used to meet the energy needs of some tools and equipment to be used in the lighting of the greenhouse.

Today, cancer is an increasingly important health problem that comes immediately after heart and vascular diseases as a cause of death. In this study primary objective is to generate an alternative to dosimetry systems that are not practical and cost effective due to increasingly complex external beam radiotherapy techniques. For this purpose, CaCl2 or Gluconic acid added dosimetric Fricke gel compounds were improved to mimic human tissues by means of interaction with X- rays. The MR intensity values were linearly changed depending on the concentrations of the produced gel samples and the dose amount of the applied radiation.

In this study, implementation of Lorenz chaotic system on Spartan 3e XC3S1600e FPGA development board by using Xilinx System Generator technology is presented. Differential equations of any nonlinear system have to be discretized before coding and design process on FPGA editor. The Lorenz chaotic system is discretized by using Taylor series expansion, Runge-Kutta and Euler discretization methods which are mostly preferred to discretize the continuous formed signals. The optimal numerical method based on application area is proposed by proving accuracy and complexity of methods and comparing designs in terms of resource utilizations on FPGA board.

Nowadays, X-ray has had a wide range of applications in nuclear imaging, medicine, and industry. In our country, X-rays are widely used in these fields. However, we are in dependence on foreign sources on the X-ray devices. In our study, it is aimed to design a fixed anode type X-ray tube which is essential in medical imaging techniques by using the local opportunities, to carry out production of a prototype and to observe the X-rays experimentally. As a result, an X-ray tube is designed and three X-ray tube prototypes are manufactured by forming of Pyrex glass. X-rays are measured by using dental X-ray film and Geiger Muller counter.

Occupational health and safety related to the work done in workplaces in general people full body health and safety provision. In our country, the occupational health and safety risk assessment analysis moral, legal, and indirect costs has become crucial. Located in the workplace or identification of hazards from outside intrusion, it turned into a risk of danger that led to the factors analyzed by ranking of the risks arising from the dangers with and control measures will be utilized for the purposes of risk assessment and analysis work required. These occupational accidents are a problem that must be resolved as a country reality. Any work that does not have security and supervision issues an accident invitation. Today, worker health and work safety remain a problem that needs to be resolved. In this study, occupational health and safety measures and interventions to be taken against emergencies are described. Emergency action plans will identify emergency situations, such as risk assessments, the likelihood of fires, the probability of explosion from hazardous chemical substances, situations requiring first aid and evacuation, natural disasters and sabotage probabilities, starting from the installation phase for all workplaces. It is prepared by following the revision stages of the contingency plans by taking the many preventive and limiting measures to prevent their adverse effects, determining the teams to be assigned, setting up the intervention to be urgently urgent and establishing the evacuation methods of employees, documentation, exercises and omissions.

The prevalence of obesity among people has increased dramatically in recent years in all the world. It is not enough to explain this increasing trend only with people s lifestyle, eating habits and cultural differences. Some chemicals, which are taken into the human body, especially through the food chain and are considered to be endocrine disruptors, affect the frequency of obesity. Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) are compounds that cause hormone disruption and elimination of the functions of these hormones. Bisphenol-A (BPA) is one of the most intensive chemicals in human life and is generally called 2,2-bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) propane. 70% of the BPA in the world is used in polycarbonate plastics and 30% in epoxy resins. Due to the widespread usage of it, BPA reaches solid and liquid wastes in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in large quantities. Considering the high production capacity of BPA and its different application areas, it is claimed that significant amount of BPA enters the environment. Studies show that the rate of being exposed to BPA has an increasing tendency. In the literature, the rate of availability in drinking water and the data on the reproductive system were only included in the researches related to BPA. Therefore, this study aimed to observe the obesogenic role of BPA in the development of obesity, which is the current health problem of the world. BPA is an endocrine disrupting chemical known to have in vitro effects on glucose metabolism and adipose tissue. In a limited number of clinical and epidemiological studies, BPA has been shown to be associated with diabetes and obesity. For this purpose, the current literature related to this issue has been reviewed and the effects of BPA on obesity have been compiled both in the world and in our country.

All living creatures tend to sense the changes in their habitat and have to comply with them to survive. At first, the basics of the biosensor theory began with in vitro studies based on sensing ability of living beings. Then, scientists have started to use this ability in some devices. Lately, these devices have been smaller and smaller. They are in used for medical, chemical, food and some other sciences to make easier, cheaper, accurate and rapid detection of specific reactions, compounds, enzymes, cells according to their electrical, thermal or optical signals. Lastly, the 4th generation of biosensor technology, as lived now, has started with the developments of Micro, Nano or BioNano Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS/BioNEMS), nanotechnology and biotechnology that are expected to have lots of features. Furthermore molecular recognition elements like aptamers which are synthetic oligonucleotide ligands against various target molecules ranging from small ions to large proteins, toxins and other analytes as receptors. The studies on using aptamers conjugated with nanomaterials to fabricate and design novel biosensors appear to continue due to various advantages such as frequency of usage, practical use and time-saving.