ABSTRACT INCREASING WALKABILITY IN PUBLIC SPACES OF CITY CENTRES: THE CASE OF TUNALI HILMI STREET, ANKARA GHADIMKHANI, PARISA M.Sc., the Department of City and Regional Planning in Urban Design Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. M&Uuml / GE AKKAR ERCAN May 2011, 204 pages Liveability and walkability have recently become one of the major policy topics in the agenda of many cities all over the world because of the negative effects of car-oriented urban developments that have impoverished physical, social, cultural, economic and environmental values of cities. In Ankara, however, the urban development policies based on the decentralization of the city centre and inner city, the impoverished public transportation services and infrastructure, the increasing car-dependent development and the neglect of pedestrians accessibility within the urban public spaces in last twenty years have decreased the walkability and therefore liveability of the city center. This thesis aims to investigate the notion of &lsquo / walkability&rsquo / in urban space, specifically in urban public space, and to identify the measures of &lsquo / walkability&rsquo / . By employing a case study method, it examines how far Tunali Hilmi Street (THS) - one of the major high streets and public spaces of Ankara - is a walkable street and identifies the positive and negative factors which effect its walkability capacity. The analysis on THS is carried out through six measures of the walkability: safety, orientation, attractiveness, comfort, diversity and local destination. Based on the findings of the investigation, this thesis gives recommendations which are practical and which can be implemented on the design of the case study area, as well as on the public spaces that are similar to THS in Ankara or other cities. Key words: Liveability, sustainability, walkability, public space, urban design, Ankara, Tunali Hilmi Street

The main focus of this work is to describe and implement a method to analyze sympathovagal balance. The theoretical part begins with electrocardiogram origin and measurement followed by heart rate variability explanation and a method of tachogram creation. The chapter is finished by description of wavelet transform as a means for tachogram processing and obtaining the sympato-vagal balance coeficient. Practical part of work focuses on developing a solution in Matlab for this problem. The R detector, tachogram creation and wavelet transform processing scripts with sympato-vagal balance assesment are fully described along with an example of their outputs. The work is finished with a conclusion of the findings and the assessment of sympato-vagal balance form them, which is unfortunately not so simple.

The aim of this master’s thesis is to design a device for identification of bus stops for blind people. In the beginning the work describes information about the RFID system, characterizes each part of this system, mutual communication of its components and evaluates possibilities of RFID communication frequency bands. Subsequently the work describes the block diagram of the device and the circuit scheme of each block. Work concentrates on a selection of circuit components for the RFID transceiver, the voice module, the control module and choose a suitable transponder to place it on metal constructions. Control programs are also described. PCB design of each board, partlists and source codes are in the appendices of this master’s thesis.

Bei der Arbeit handelt es sich um Forschungen zur Topografie und Siedlungsgeschichte der Stadt Orchomenos im nordöstlichen Arkadien (in der zentralen Peloponnes) vom Neolithikum bis in die Spätantike. Für ein umfassenderes und präziseres Bild in Bezug auf die Stadt- und auch Landschaftsgeschichte der Region, wird eine Gesamtbetrachtung und Bilanz aller bis dato bekannten Fakten und Quellen - antike Autoren, Reisende der Neuzeit, Denkmäler, Epigraphik, Numismatik – erarbeitet. Dadurch wird bewiesen, dass Orchomenos die Kriterien einer antiken griechischen polis erfüllt: Es besaß ein städtisches Zentrum mit Ober- und Unterstadt, dazu eine Agora mit Bauten politischer (Hallen), religiöser (Tempel) und Unterhaltungsfunktion (Theater). Orchomenos weist mit rund 100 Quadratkilometern auch das für griechische poleis charakteristische zugehörige Umland auf. Außerdem besaß Orchomenos einen Stadtkult, eine Befestigungsmauer und ein Straßennetz, durch das es mit benachbarten Städten und Regionen auf der Peloponnes verbunden wurde. Menschliche Aktivitäten und Besiedlung lassen sich in der Region Orchomenos bereits seit dem Neolithikum nachweisen, mit Ausnahme der Dunklen Jahrhunderte. Die Blütezeit von Orchomenos ist, nach dem Spektrum des archäologischen Materials zu urteilen, in die spätklassische Zeit zu setzen. Für die vorliegende Arbeit wurde u. a. die Existenz einer Rampe am südöstlichen Mauereingang nachgewiesen. Die frühere Bearbeitung der Fundstücke aus Orchomenos konnte beispielsweise durch Metallobjekte aus dem Nationalmuseum von Athen oder eine wissenschaftliche Aufnahme der zwischen 2011 und 2014 entdeckten Neufunde erweitert werden. / The work deals with research on the topography and settlement history of the city of Orchomenos in north-eastern Arcadia (in the central Peloponnese) from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity. An overall view and appraisal of all facts and sources known to date - ancient authors, modern travelers, monuments, epigraphs, numismatics - is compiled for a more comprehensive and precise picture of the urban and landscape history of the region. The research proves that Orchomenos fulfills the criteria of an ancient Greek polis: It had an urban center with an upper and lower city, as well as an Agora with buildings for political (halls), religious (temple) and entertainment functions (theater). With an extension of ca. 100 square kilometers, Orchomenos had controlled the surrounding area that is characteristic of Greek poleis too. In addition, Orchomenos had a city cult, a fortification wall, and a road network connecting it to neighboring cities and regions in the Peloponnese. Human activity and habitation in the region of Orchomenos can be traced back to the Neolithic Age, with the exception of the Dark Ages. Judging by the range of archaeological material, the height of Orchomenos dates back to the Late Classical Period. For the present work is, among others, the existence of a ramp at the south-eastern entrance to the wall proven. The earlier documentation of the finds from Orchomenos could be expanded, for example, with metal objects from the National Museum of Athens or a scientific recording of the new finds discovered between 2011 and 2014.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health threat that results not only in health consequences but also economic consequences. Since 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a strategy with the aim of ending the global burden of TB by reducing TB-related deaths, reducing TB incidence, and eliminating the burden of TB-related catastrophic costs for patients and their families. In order to reach these targets, we need to implement effective TB diagnostic and care strategies that are feasible for both patients as well as the health care system. -- Methods: This study consists of two manuscripts which assess the economic burden of TB - one from the patient perspective and the other from the health system perspective. The first manuscript is a systematic review aimed to determine the costs incurred by patients and their households while receiving TB care with direct (medical and non-medical) as well as indirect costs being examined for the pre-diagnostic, post-diagnostic and total phase of care. It analyzed studies with varying patient populations from low-, middle-, and high-income settings to help estimate key factors that drive patient costs. Furthermore, it assessed the proportion of patients that incurred catastrophic costs and the coping strategies that they resorted to in order to offset the costs of TB care. The second manuscript is a modelling study which aimed to develop, parameterize and analyze a decision analytic model to determine the cost, health outcomes as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted and the cost-effectiveness of second-generation lateral flow lipoarabinomannan assay (SG LF-LAM) diagnostic algorithms in people living with HIV (PLHIV) per DALY averted. This model examined four different strategies - 1) the standard of care (SOC) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF only, 2) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for all patients, 3) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for patients with a negative Xpert result, and 4) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for patients who are symptom negative. -- Results: A systematic review showed that total patient costs related to TB care ranged from a mean of $2.80 to $19,153.80 (2019 USD) with costs largely dependent on geographic location as well as patient population, Direct medical and indirect cost components were the largest source of costs for patients and their families while receiving TB care. Direct medical costs included the cost of medication, consultations, diagnostics, follow-up testing, and hospitalization while indirect costs mainly consisted of loss of income. The costs of TB care were considered catastrophic for the majority of patients resulting in them using coping strategies to offset the burden of costs. In the second manuscript, the cost-effectiveness analysis Xpert only was found to be dominated by Xpert + FujiLAM conditional on a negative Xpert with an ICER of 1,000 USD/per DALY averted compared to the standard of care (SOC) Xpert only. Sensitivity analysis found that variations in the key model parameters had an impact on the cost and effectiveness calculations obtained through the model. -- Conclusions: The burden of TB-related costs impact both patients and the health care system at all stages of TB care. Novel diagnostic strategies like the inclusion of FujiLAM for TB diagnosis in PLHIV are cost-effective tools that can aid in case detection and reduce severe outcomes of TB. In order to reduce the TB burden and achieve the "End TB" strategy goals, studies need to work to understand the key components involved in these costs as well as work to develop and implement effective, feasible interventions for TB diagnostics and care.

Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Program slicing was originally described by Mark Weiser in 1984. He proposed this as a technique to aid in debugging because he conjectured that this is what programmers did naturally when debugging. Here program slicing is applied to an experimental concurrent language called LF. Existing techniques are adapted to accommodate the unique features of the language. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Programdeling is oorspronklik deur Mark Weiser beskryf in 1984. Hy het dit voorgestel as ’n tegniek om ontfouting te vergemaklik, want hy het geglo dat dit is wat programmeerders van nature self doen. Programdeling word hier toegepas op ’n eksperimentele gelyklopende taal genaamd LF. Bestaande tegnieke word gewysig om die taal se unieke eienskappe in ag te neem.

Upon entering middle school, students within the study district in southeastern Tennessee had low literacy proficiency scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) for 3 consecutive years. Middle school administrators implemented a program called Lexile Framework (LF) into the literacy curriculum in 2011 to improve TCAP scores. However, the change in literacy scores had not been examined following the implementation of LF. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research study was to examine the differences in literacy scores on TCAP of students across the years of pre- and post-LF implementation into the curriculum (2009-2011 and 2012-2014). The theoretical framework for this research study was Vygotsky's social development theory used within the LF to create student-centered learning in order for students to construct new knowledge by making connections with their literacy experiences. With a convenience sample of 225 students, a repeated-measure analysis of variance determined if there was a significant change in the archived matched literacy TCAP scores before and after the implementation of LF. The multivariate tests indicated a significant (Wilk's Î? = .21, F (3, 222) = 276.85, p < .01) and linear effect (F (1, 224) = 709.75, p < .01) with partial eta squared (η2 = .76) of LF on literacy TCAP scores of students across the years of pre- and post-LF implementation. Positive social change implications include providing school administrators with research findings to inform district-wide decisions regarding the use of LF in the curricula in their middle schools. Increasing students' literacy TCAP scores may ultimately improve graduation rates for students.

This thesis addresses a gap in research on collaborative creativity. Prior research has investigated how groups of professionals, young people and children work together to co-create work, but the distinctive contribution of this thesis is a socioculturally framed understanding of undergraduates’ interdisciplinary practices over an extended period. Guided by a socioculturally framed theory of creativity, this thesis observed 4 students creating a 10 minute performance piece, and presents a longitudinal analysis of the co-creation process which occurred through a total of 28 meetings recorded over the course of a twelve-week term (24 hours of recordings in total). Specific episodes were selected from the full set of recordings, constituting 2 hours of recordings for in-depth analysis. Sociocultural discourse analysis was used to examine how social and cultural contexts constituted an ecology of undergraduate practice in interdisciplinary creative collaboration. Offering a new methodology, this discursive approach for studying context (Arvaja, 2008) was combined with interaction analysis (Kumpulainen & Wray, 2002; Scott, Mortimer & Aguiar, 2006) to analyse how moment-by-moment creative developments and contexts were resourced and constituted through dialogue, artifacts and physical settings. With implications for theory and practice, the analysis showed how the students’ collaborative contexts were constituted through dialogue, and how their emerging co- creative practice was mediated through multiple social and physical settings. It further evidenced how common knowledge was constructed through the process of collaboration, the value of peer feedback for fostering confidence, and students’ need for ‘silent witnessing’; for space to reflect and contribute to a long-term cumulative conversation. The thesis also discusses how resourceful the students were, in terms of negotiating unfamiliar and unpredictable co-creating activities. Evidence is provided for the collaborative value of creating and appropriating new tools to develop common knowledge, and for the significance of imagination as a psychological resource for building common knowledge about hypothetical future activities, showing how technology-mediated co-creating can be seen as a complex interactional accomplishment.

[pt] Este estudo diz respeito à aquisição dos complementos pronominais acusativos de terceira pessoa no Português Brasileiro (PB) e no Espanhol Rio- Platense (ER). A dissertação fundamenta-se numa proposta teórica que visa a uma articulação entre teoria lingüística e teorias de processamento no tratamento da Aquisição da Linguagem. A hipótese de trabalho que orientou esta pesquisa é a de que a informação advinda da interface fônica da língua com sistemas de desempenho é processada de forma diferenciada entre as línguas em função das distinções entre os sistemas pronominais. Considera-se que, uma vez que a criança represente complementos pronominais no léxico como um feixe de traços, não haverá distinção entre línguas no que concerne à interpretação semântica e identificação do referente. São relatados dois experimentos. O primeiro faz uso da técnica de escuta preferencial com o objetivo de verificar a sensibilidade de crianças de 12-22 meses adquirindo ER à forma fônica dos clíticos acusativos. O segundo é um estudo contrastivo entre PB e ER que faz uso da técnica de identificação de objetos, com vistas a verificar se crianças de 2 e de 4 anos distinguem o sistema pronominal de sua língua e interpretam informação relativa a gênero/número na identificação do referente de complementos pronominais. Os resultados sugerem que crianças de 18 meses são sensíveis à forma dos clíticos no ER e que crianças de 2 anos são capazes de distinguir os complementos da sua própria língua, ainda que o processamento da referência pronominal apresente dificuldade mesmo aos 4 anos de idade. / [en] This study is about the acquisition of accusative pronominal complements of third person in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and Rio-Platense Spanish (RS). The dissertation is based in a theoretical proposal that aims for articulation between linguistic theory and processing theory in the study of Language Acquisition. The working hypothesis in this research is that the information coming from the phonic interface between language and performance systems is processed differently in each language, depending on their respective pronominal systems. We also assume that, once a children represents pronominal complements in his lexic as a set of phifeatures, there is no distinction between the two languages regarding semantinc interpretation and identification of the referent. We relate two experiments.The first one uses the headturn preference procedure, aiming to verify the sensibility of 12-22 months old children acquiring RS to the phonic form of accusative clitics. The second is a contrastive study of BP and RS, using the technique of object identification from stimulus sentences, aiming to measure the ability of 2-4 years old children to distinguish the pronominal system of their language and iterpret information relating gender and number in the identification of the referent of pronominal complements.The results suggest that children around 18 months are sensitive to the form of clitics in RS, and 2 years old children are able to distinguish the complements of their own language, although processing the pronominal reference presents difficulties even at age 4. The results are consistent with the hipotesis of this dissertation.

Esta tese apresenta os métodos de gerenciamento associados ao Pó de Aciaria Elétrica (PAE) gerado no forno elétrico a arco (FEA) e no forno-panela (FP), envolvendo dois grandes tópicos: sistema de gestão ambiental e fatores relacionados à tecnologia. O processo do PAE percorre as seguintes etapas: entrada e beneficiamento da matériaprima, preparação, carregamento e fusão de carga no FEA, formação e retirada de escória, vazamento do aço para a panela, refino no forno-panela, assim como o sistema de captação das emissões atmosféricas e destinação do PAE captado no FEA e FP. Os métodos de gerenciamento foram estruturados em cima do aprendizado técnico, qualitativo e quantitativo adquirido no desenvolvimento das atividades profissionais, dos levantamentos sobre as tecnologias disponíveis para destinação e reciclagem do PAE, dos mapeamentos das características das instalações de captação do PAE de empresas siderúrgicas, bem como das bibliografias e visitas técnicas realizadas. As informações reunidas foram empregadas para desenvolver duas matrizes de avaliação, consolidando assim, um critério para verificar as práticas de gestão ambiental e de tecnologias que estão associadas ao PAE. O principal resultado das matrizes foi a identificação e priorização das necessidades de melhorias, tanto do sistema de gestão ambiental como da área de tecnologia. A avaliação das empresas siderúrgicas, segundo estas matrizes, mostrou quais práticas possuem menores valores e que, por conseqüência, devem requerer maior esforço para melhorar seus desempenhos, bem como aquelas de maior valor que requerem uma consolidação da sua rotina para manterem o elevado nível de desempenho atingido. Como conclusão, foi obtida uma ferramenta robusta que respondeu de forma consistente a avaliação do processo do PAE e a pergunta sobre “O que se encontra mais desenvolvido, os processos de gestão ou os de tecnologia?”. As matrizes de avaliação foram preenchidas por especialistas ambientais de três Empresas siderúrgicas. O resultado obtido com essa ferramenta mostrou que os desempenhos sobre as práticas de gestão são superiores aos desempenhos das práticas de tecnologia e que esta metodologia de avaliação está apta para ser aplicada em qualquer outro processo ou empresa. Ficou evidenciado que o conhecimento e a inteligência ambiental são requisitos para assegurar que as estratégias de médio e longo prazo estejam corretamente alinhadas às boas práticas de gestão e melhores tecnologias disponíveis. / The thesis presents the methods associated with the management of the electric arc furnace (EAF) baghouse dust and ladle furnace (LF) dust. The management methods cover two broad topics: environmental management system practices and technology related factors. The EAF baghouse dust and ladle furnace (LF) dust process has the following steps: input and processing raw materials, EAF charging and melting, slag generation and removal, furnace tapping of the steel to the LF, refining in the LF, as well as the EAF dedusting system, dust recycling and final destination. The management methods were determined based on professional experience of the author, assessment of typical installations of steel plant dedusting system, bibliographies review, available technologies to EAF/LF dust destination and recycling and subject technical literature, as well technical visits undertaken. Collectively the information was used to develop two standard evaluation standard matrices which provide criteria to assess environmental management system practices and technology associated with EAF dust management. The primary goal of the assessments was to identify and prioritize areas for potential improvement - either in environmental management systems area or the technology area. The assessment results showed that steel plants which have practices with lower values, according to these matrices, should require greater effort to improve their performance, while those with good score, will require a consolidation of their routine to maintain the high level of performance already achieved. The matrices were filled by environmental experts from three steelmaking companies. Finally, as a result of this project a rigorous and reliable assessment tool was designed to evaluate the meltshop dust generation and management process and provide a quantitative answer to the following question: `Which area has achieved a higher level of development as it relates to meltshop dust management: environmental management system practices or control technology?’ The results from using this tool have shown that the performance of management practices is superior to the control technology. Furthermore, experiences captured during the assessment indicate this evaluation methodology is fully adaptable and can be applied to other processes and/or other businesses. It was clearly highlighted how knowledge and environmental intelligence are requirements to assure that the medium and long term strategies are properly aligned with the available best practices to environmental management system and control technology.