The thesis attempts to illuminate the construction process of the Middle East as a separate region. Within this context, it first seeks to find out what a region means. For this sake, the thesis outlines the historical development of the discipline of geography and the changing meanings of region in line with the disciplinary developments. Furthermore, it concentrates on the emergence of the region Middle East, its denomination and transformation along with changing international politics. Finally, the thesis evaluates the existence of the ethnocentric geographical term Middle East within the context of current global conditions.

ABSTRACT SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT IN CITY-REGIONS: THE CASE OF IZMIR CITY REGION Nal, Seda M.S., Department of City and Regional Planning, Regional Planning Supervisor : Assist. Prof. Dr. Ela Babalik Sutcliffe July 2008, 385 pages While the vast literature on sustainable transport emphasizes certain urban development patterns as those that should be encouraged in urban planning, it is a fact that there is an increasing tendency in many urban areas in the world towards becoming a city-region. However, whether these city-region development patterns can help attain a more sustainable urban growth and transport system is a relatively less studied area in the field of sustainable transport. In general terms, the study aims to bring together these two important fields of research in the planning literature: sustainable transport and city-regions, with a view to analyze whether they can co-exist, whether their policies comply with, and complement each other, eventually whether it is possible to attain transport sustainability in city-regions. Regarding this aim, three aspects are identified as &amp / #8216 / threats&amp / #8217 / for the attainment of sustainable transport and land-use development in city-regions: 1.Increase in need to travel and car dependency due to increase in interactions and longer distances in city-regions, 2. Economic objectives for city-regions conflicting with objectives of sustainable transport, and 3. Difficulty in ensuring policy coordination for an integrated approach to sustainability due to fragmentation of governments. Two most effective ways of achieving sustainable transport, land-use planning policies and policies for improving public transport and non-motorized transport, are chosen as the main policy approaches to be analyzed. Through the analysis of planning experience in a selected case study area, the Izmir City Region, the study intends to find out whether these issues are real threats for attaining sustainable transport in city regions and whether they can be overcome.

A revision of the Mediterranean and the Aegean geographic regions of Turkey of Salvia L. (Labiatae) is presented. According to the results, the study area has 60 taxa, 32 of which are endemic (mainly local endemics), 5 of which are non-endemic rare, and the remaining 23 taxa are widely distributed. The rate of endemism is 53% in the area. At the beginning of the thesis, history and worldwide distribution of the family and the genus are briefly given. Phylogenetic studies and infrageneric grouping of the genus are discussed. As well as, recent studies on the genus such as taxonomical, morphological, micromorphological and karyological are provided. Geographic, phytogeographic, topographic, and climatic features of the area are explained. Since 2005, about 2000 specimens have been collected and examined as the research materials. In addition, a large number of specimens have been seen and studied in ANK, AEF, BM, E, ERCIYES, G, GAZI, HUB, K, KNYA, LE, ISTE and ISTF herbaria. Digital photos of some specimens including type specimens have been seen from B, W and A herbaria. In the field when the specimens were detected geographical location (including GPS), habitat, phenological data and relevant field observations were all recorded. In the study, comparative morphological characters and their variations are discussed Anatomical features, such as root, stem, leaf and petiole, micromorphological properties, such as trichome, pollen and nutlet, of the species are comprehensively studied and their taxonomic implications are discussed. According to field studies and literature surveys, endemism, pyhtogeography, habitat, phenology, chorology, new distribution areas and conservation status of the species are determined. Infrageneric delimitation of the species using multivariety analysis is performed. In addition, first sectional key and sectional grouping of the species are made. As well as, identification key of the species is given. At the end of the thesis, expanded and corrected description, address, photographs and some notes on taxonomy of the species are given. The taxonomic studies revealed one new species, Salvia marashica, two new varieties, S. sericeo-tomentosa var. hatayica, S. cadmica var. bozkiriensis, one new combination, S. aucheri subsp. canescens and one new record, S. viscosa. As well as, S. sericeo-tomentosa and S. quezelii are rediscovered.

This thesis analyzes the changes occured in the Iranian education system. The changes occured before and after the Islamic Revolution are main themes. Reform attempts, modernization, westernization, secularization, purification and Islamization of Iranian education system will be discussed along with comments of notable figures. The thesis will also trace the history of modernization and development of Iran as well as introducing political ideas of ruling elites how they defined projects to transform Iranian education system.

Abies is the second largest genus of family Pinaceae (after Pinus), consisting of about 51 species, all native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are six native taxa belonging to this genus growing in pure and mixed stands in Turkey. Abies cilicica subsp. isaurica, Abies nordmanniana subsp. bornm&uuml / lleriana, Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani, Abies x olcayana are endemic and considered as lower risk (LR) species. To determine the genetic relationships in Turkish firs, 18 populations of different subspecies of Abies were collected from different regions of Turkey and non-coding trn regions of chloroplast DNA were sequenced to assess the genetic structure of the studied species. trnL, trnF and trnV region were examined. All the trn regions of Abies species in the world (aproximately 300 species that found in the IPNI (The International Plant Names Index) were investigated in the database of NCBI. The available trn sequences of 23 Abies species worldwide included into the analyses. All analyses to estimate molecular diversity parameters were carried out with the MEGA software. The constructed phylogenetic tree with the trn sequences revealed that Turkish firs formed a monophyletic group with almost no sequence divergence. v Since sequence data for all three sectors of trn were not available from the NCBI data base, the phylogentic analysis with the sequence data of trnL regions were compartively analyzed in all firs. The results showed that Turkish- European species formed a single clade, which clearly differentiated them from the others, such as Japanese species, A. veitchii. Similarly, according to the sequence data of trnF, Turkish fir species were grouped together and distinctly separated from Asian-American Fir species. The results suggest that all Turkish firs may have evolved from single ancestral fir species, most likely from Abies nordmanniana.

In recent years, the Asian dust storms occurred frequently. It was estimated that approximately eight hundred million metric tons of Asian dusts transported to the atmosphere yearly. During the dust storm period, Asian dusts not only induce poor air quality, but also reduce atmospheric visibility and influence human health. In order to investigate the physicochemical characteristics and source allocation of Asian dusts, this study collect the Asian dusts in the Pescadores Islands during the years of 2002~2006. In addition, this study collected top soils in three regions of Inner Mongolia and resuspended the soil samples in a resuspension chamber to analyze their chemical composition. Moreover, this study applied enrichment factor analysis (EF) and grey relational analysis to allocate the potential sources of Asian dusts and compare them with the transportation routes obtained from backward trajectory. During Asian dust storm periods, the concentration of atmospheric particulate matter (PM10) in the Pescadores Islands increased significantly, probably is 3~6 times of PM10 during non-dust storm periods. Among them, coarse particles (PM2.5-10) particularly rose from 10~30 £gg/m3 to 80~130 £gg/m3 and the size distribution changed from bi-modal distribution to single modal distribution of coarse particles during Asian dust storm periods. This study further analyzed the chemical composition of Asian dusts, including water-soluble ionic species, carbon contents, and metallic contents. For fine particles (PM2.5), the order of water-soluble ionic species was SO42- > NH4+ > NO3- > Cl- > Ca2+ > Na+ > K+ > Mg2+ > F-. For coarse particles (PM2.5-10), the order of water-soluble ionic species was Cl- > SO42- > NO3- > Na+ > Ca2+ > NH4+ > Mg2+ > K+ > F-. The carbon contents distributes mainly in fine particles. The major contents of both fine and coarse particles were crustal elements (i.e. Al, Fe, Na, Mg, K, Ca, and Sr). In addition to the analysis of physicochemical characteristics of Asian dusts, this study applied HYSPLIT MODEL to figure out their transportation routes by backward trajectory. According to the backward trajectories, this study compartmentalized Asian dusts storm transportation routes into three categories: Eastward Transportation and Retraced (ETR), Southeasterly Transportation and Circumrotated (STC), and Straight Southeasterly Transportation (SST). Analyzing the spatial and temporary background variables to investigate the influence of transportation routes on Asian dusts¡¦ physicochemical characteristic. This study revealed that the physicochemical characteristics were very similar for same category of Asian dust storms, which can be used to allocate the source regions of Asian dust storms. This study resuspended the soil samples collected in Inner Mongolia inside a resuspension chamber and collected the suspended particles (PM2.5, PM2.5-10) for chemical analysis. Chemical analysis results indicated that the fingerprints of chemical composition for different regions were similar but still distinguishable, which can be used to identify the source areas of Asian dusts. This study further compare and correlate the Asian dusts collected at the Pescadores Islands during Asian dust storm periods with the soils collected in Inner Mongolia chemically by enrichment factor and grey relational analysis. This study further compared the source allocation of Asian dust storms obtained from enrichment factor, grey relational analysis, and backward trajectory and found the results of these three methods were quite similar. For enrichment factor analysis, 88% of similarity was obtained by using two separate reference elements (Al and Fe). The similarity of backward trajectory and grey relational analysis reached as high as 83%. Moreover, the backward trajectory and enrichment factor were similar up to 75%, while the grey relational analysis and enrichment factor were similar up to 69%. Overall, two out of three aforementioned methods can effectively allocate the source regions of Asian dusts by 94%, while all three methods can successfully allocate the source regions of Asian dusts by 56%. Comparison of three aforementioned methods showed that they can be applied to allocate the source regions of Asian dusts.

ABSTRACT In this study, we conducted an intensive sampling of Asian dusts at Pescadores Islands for heavy Asian continental sandstorms (ACS) from February 22 to March 6, 2008. To investigate the succession of anthropogenic and natural pollutants for the ACS transportation, PM2.5 and PM2.5-10 were sampled by two dichotomous samplers once every four hours during the ACS periods, and furthermore analyzed their physicochemical properties, including mass concentrations, particle size distribution, water-soluble ionic species, carbonaceous contents, and metallic contents. Experimental results indicated that it was mainly fine particles (PM2.5) prior to the ACS, and the percentage of anthropogenic species (i.e., SO42-, NH4+, NO3-, Zn, Mn and OC) increased dramatically. However, it changed to coarse particles while the ACS overwhelming, and the percentage of crustal/marine species (i.e., Cl-, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Ca, Al, Mg and EC) increased. After the ACS, the concentrations of all species decreased substantially. However, the percentage of Cl- and Na+ increased, suggesting that sea breeze has constant influences on local suspended particles. In addition to the analysis of physicochemical properties of Asian dusts, this study applied a HYSPLIT MODEL to figure out the transportation routes and the source regions of the ACS. Backward trajectory analysis showed that the ACS was originated from the east portion of Inner Mongolia, namely the Onqin Daga Sandy Land and the Horqin Sandy Land. Moreover, seventeen soil samples were collected from the Tengger Desert, the Mu Us Desert, the Onqin Daga Sandy Land, and the Horqin Sandy Land in Inner Mongolia during the year of 2005. The soil samples were resuspended in a resuspension chamber and then collected by a dichotomous sampler. This study focused on PM2.5-10 particles that mainly influence the downwind regions, and then took the ACS samples and the resuspended soil samples to measure the Sr isotopic characteristics of 87Sr/86Sr ratios by a multiple-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). To characterize the isotopic properties of resuspended dust particles from the ACS source regions in northern China, and to correlate Asian dusts at the downwind regions of ACS with the source regions by Duncan¡¦s Multiple Range Test (DMR). The DMR results showed that the ACS was probably originated from the east portion of Inner Mongolia, namely the Onqin Daga Sandy Land and the Horqin Sandy Land, which concurred with the backward trajectory analysis.

<p>A novel approach is proposed for modeling of structurally variable regions in proteins. In this approach, a prerequisite sequence-structure alignment is examined for regions where the target sequence is not covered by the structural template. These regions, extended with a number of residues from adjacent stem regions, are submitted to fold recognition. The alignments produced by fold recognition are integrated into the initial alignment to create a multiple alignment where gaps in the main structural template are covered by local structural templates. This multiple alignment is used to create a protein model by existing protein modeling techniques.</p><p>Several alternative parameters are evaluated using a set of ten proteins. One set of parameters is selected and evaluated using another set of 31 proteins. The most promising result is for loop regions not located at the C- or N-terminal of a protein, where the method produces an average RMSD 12% lower than the loop modeling provided with the program MODELLER. This improvement is shown to be statistically significant.</p>

<p>This is unique study of import is of the greatest importance, since no studies of import</p><p>across regions have earlier been performed. Import is a driving force of innovations and</p><p>therefore most important for a stable growth. This master thesis is about interregional import,</p><p>as well as the strong spatial concentration of imports in the Swedish system of network.</p><p>Five hypothesises are presented in the last section of chapter two. The variables to be used</p><p>in the analysis are then divided into two main groups, before empirically tested in different</p><p>combinations of regression models.</p><p>The main conclusion of this thesis is a significant correlation between import, and the two</p><p>independent variables export and firm R&D, and its result goes in line with the theoretical</p><p>framework of this thesis, regional specialisation in import and export nodes</p>

Die regionale altersstrukturelle Zusammensetzung in Europa und Deutschland ist sehr heterogen. In der Literatur werden viele Diskussionen darüber geführt, wie sich unter anderem Regionen in Zukunft entwickeln werden und ob es ggf. zu einer Entvölkerung einzelner Gebiete kommt. Allerdings sind bisher nur selten Untersuchungen vorgenommen worden, welche die Auswirkungen der altersstrukturellen Zusammensetzung auf die regionale Produktivität und das regionale Wachstum sind. Diese Lücke wird im Rahmen dieser Arbeit weiter vervollständigt. Zunächst wird ein neoklassisches Wachstumsmodell in Anlehnung an Mankiw, Romer und Weil (1992) angewandt und um öffentliche Investitionen erweitert. Das Untersuchungsfeld sind europäische und deutsche Regionen. Im Anschluss wird untersucht, inwiefern die regionale Altersstruktur Humankapitalexternalitäten generiert. Hierzu wird eine Produktionsfunktion in Anlehnung an Lucas (1988) geschätzt. Anschließend wird ein simultanes Gleichungssystem für eine Schätzgleichung motiviert, die der Arbeit von Baldwin (1999) folgt. Es zeigt sich, dass Unterschiede in der regionalen Produktivität und des Wachstums durch altersstrukturelle Variationen erklärt werden kann. / The composition of the regional age pattern of the population and labour force within Europe and Germany is quiet heterogenous. Within the existing literature there is a debate on regional development and the possibility of depopulation. However, there is only limited evidence on the effect of the composition of the age pattern on regional productivity and growth. The aim of this work is to fill this gap. To adress this issues an augmented neoclassical growth model of Mankiw, Romer and Weil (1992) is applied. Additionally, public spendings are controlled for. The model is tested on European and German regions. The next section focuses on productivity, esp. whether the age structure of human capital effects human capital externalities. First, a production function in a Lucas (1988) fashion is estimated. Second, a simultaneous equation model based on the conceptual ideas of Baldwin (1999) is applied. One can conclude that differences in regional productivity and growth is due to variation of the age pattern of the labour force and population.