This study analyzed historical hydrographic data consist of 95 years of NODC data and 18 years of NCOR data. Variations of upper-layer current in Luzon Strait and its neighboring Northern South China Sea are investigated by the method of dynamical topography. On the other hand, higher salinity characteristic of the North Pacific Tropical Water (NPTW) is used to trace the water mass distribution and its seasonal variations in the studied area. The result shows that the maximum of x-component velocity (along 120.25˚E, relative to 400 m ) in the Luzon Strait occurs in the middle of the strait, the flow direction is westward and the speed increases toward the surface. At the north and south ends of the strait flows are eastward and the maximum speed core is at the depth of 0~50 m. Horizontal distribution of flow fields indicates that intrusion of the north Pacific waters into the South China Sea through the Luzon Strait in the whole year. Westward bifurcation of the intrusion flows occurs at 20~21˚N. A cyclonic eddy exists in the South China Sea all year-round, and its core is located at about 18˚N, 118˚E. This eddy strengthens as the monsoon prevails with its speed reached in January and February. Annual mean upper-layer transport (0~ 400 m) of the Luzon Strait is estimated to be about 3.5 Sv (positive value means westward) with a maximum value of about 6.5 Sv in December and a minimum value of 1.1 Sv in June. The Upper-layer current of the SCS is dominated by the monsoon. When the northeast monsoon prevails, the currents are affected by the Ekman effect to form high sea surface height in the north and low sea surface height in the south to produce a westward current. On the other hand, strong two coexistent wind stress curls with reversing signs during the northeast monsoon produce a westward current along the line of zero curl in the middle of the strait. The distribution of the NPTW(£m£c=23.5¡ã25.5 kg/m3,S >34.5 psu) is mostly at a depth of 120¡ã130 m in the South China Sea. NPTW were traced at 125 m depth, and the result indicates that this water mass enters the South China Sea through the Luzon strait all year-round. The intrusion path is along the continental slope of south China. The extent of intrusion reaches the maximum between December and February, and the water mass can spread into the South China Sea basin.

In this paper, we use the high frequency trading data of New York Stock Exchange to analyze the bid-ask spread components. It is found that there is an exponential relationship between the log returns of quoted midpoints and the trade volume. We also observe a negative linear correlation between the changes of quoted depth and the trade volume. Furthermore, changes of the quoted ask depth and the quoted bid depth are asymmetric due to the trading direction. Furthermore, statistical quality control charts, p-charts, are built for fixed number of trades to monitor unusual trades entering the market. Finally, logistic regression models are established to predict the probabilities of unusual trades entering the market based on the quotes and the quoted depth adjustments of the market makers.

Shallow lake wetlands, for which aquatic plants (macrophytes) and water clarity are the key indicators of ecological status, provide valuable services to wildlife and humanity. Conservation of these ecosystems requires development of rapid and large scale monitoring strategies, where remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can be advantageous. In this study, high spatial resolution Quickbird and IKONOS and medium spatial resolution Landsat and Aster images were used for monitoring the aquatic plants and water clarity in Lakes Mogan and Eymir. Classification of emergent plants with high spatial resolution data yielded overall accuracies greater than 90% for both lakes, while overall accuracies obtained from the medium spatial resolution data ranged between 80% and 93% for Lake Mogan and between 70% and 78% for Lake Eymir. It was found that there was 23ha reed bed loss in Lake Mogan between 2002 and 2005 and an additional 14ha was lost between 2005 and 2006. In Lake Eymir, no significant change in reed bed area was detected from high spatial resolution images / however medium spatial resolution images revealed 8ha of change which was attributed to the presence of mixed pixels due to low resolution. The overall accuracies for submerged plant coverage classification from Quickbird images in Lake Mogan were 83% (2005) and 79% (2006) and for classification of submerged plants species were 72% (2005) and 69% (2006). Moreover, it was found that blue band together with the ratio of red band to blue band, were the best predictors of Secchi disc depth.

Previous studies have shown that screens may be utilized efficiently for dissipating the energy of water. For the present study, a series of experimental works are executed to investigate the tailwater and multiple screen effects on the energy dissipation through screens. Water flowing beneath a sliding gate is used to simulate the flow downstream of a hydraulic structure. In the present study, one double screen and two double screen arrangements with porosity of 40% and inclination angle of 90 degree is used. A tailwater gate structure is used to adjust the tailwater depth. The major parameters for the present study are upstream flow depth, tailwater gate height, location of the screen together with the supercritical upstream flow Froude number for a range covering from 5.0 to 22.5. The gate opening simulating a hydraulic structure is adjusted at heights of 2 cm and 3 cm during the study. The results of the experiments show that the tailwater depth has no significant additional contribution on the energy dissipation, whereas multiple screen arrangement dissipates more energy as compared to one double screen arrangement.

Stereoscopic displays provide 3D vision usually with the help of additional equipment such as shutter glasses and head gears. As a new stereoscopic display technology, autostereoscopic 3D Displays provide 3D vision without additional equipment. Previous studies of depth and distance estimation with autostereoscopic displays indicate the users do not exhibit better performance in 3D. Yet, they claim 3D displays provide higher immersiveness. In this study, perception of the angle of a 3D shape is investigated by comparing 2D, 3D and Real perception cases. An experiment is conducted using an autostereoscopic 3D display. Forty people have participated in the experiment. They were asked to estimate the vertex angle and draw the projections of the object from two different viewpoints. It is found that users can better estimate the angles on a cone when viewed from the top on an autostereoscopic display. This may contribute positively to 3D understanding of the scene. Results revealed that participants make more accurate angle estimation in autostereoscopic 3D displays than in traditional 2D displays. In general, the participants&rsquo / angle drawings were slightly higher than their angle estimations. Moreover, the participants overestimated 35, 65 and 90 degree angles and underestimated 115 degree angle in autostereoscopic 3D display.

Turkey has been in the process of taking its foreign policy position in the post-Cold War international schema. Through this process of adjustment, Turkish foreign policy has been developing new perspectives with new concepts. The objective of this thesis is to analyze these new concepts with its theoretical basics and reflections in policy formation. In this sense / traditional Turkish foreign policy, systemic changes behind the new foreign policy path, Strategic Depth Doctrine and new conceptual tools of Turkish foreign policy are the topics covered along the chapters. Turkish foreign policy has a new conceptual and theoretical frame, which could not be fully tested and ultimate policy results could not be observed. In this thesis, new concepts are analyzed as a contribution to Turkish Foreign Policy literature, within a descriptive methodology.

Along with advancement of human industrialization, pollution in the ocean is getting worse. Moreover, the overfishing through the years has caused catastrophic damage to the ocean eco-system. In order to avoid exhaustion of fishery resource, many concepts of planned administrative fishery has become popular, and thereamong, ocean ranch draws the most attention. Artificial reef plays a key role in an ocean ranch, which starts with incubating brood fish in the laboratory. Often, the brood fish will grow in the cage near coast till proper size, then be released to the artificial reef. If fish groups do not disperse and multiply, the artificial reef can be considered successful. The success of the artificial reef relies on the stable foundation. Consequently, the composition of seabed sediment under the planned site should be investigated thoroughly before hand. This research introduced a remote investigation method, which an active sonar, depth sounder, was used to emit and collect acoustic signals. By using the signals reflected from the seabed, the sediment composition can be analyzed. However, all acoustic signals are subjected to noise through propagation, and distorted somehow. Therefore, certain signal pre-processing should be applied to the received signal, and representative characteristics can be extracted from it. In this research, the recognition platform was built on artificial neural network (ANN) in this research. Among many network algorithm modes, this research chose the widely used backpropagation learning algorithm to be the main structure in ANN. The goal of this research was to discriminate among three seabed sediments: fine sand, medium sand, and rock. During the signal processing, characteristics were extracted by using peak value selection method. Selected major frequency peaks were fed into the network to train and learn. According to partial error relation between recognition and practical result, weights of the network were adjusted for improving successful ratio. Finally, a reliable acoustic wave signal recognition system was constructed.

In the absorption spectra, photoabsorption cross sections and oscillator strengths were measured. Quantum defects were calculated to identify the assignments of absorption features. The measured quantities were also compared with previous results. In fluorescence excitation spectra, ultraviolet and visible emissions were observed, and fluorescence cross sections were measured in the excitation region between 140 and 170 nm. The ultraviolet emission is due to the transition B¡¦2£G¡÷X2£S and the visible emission is associated with B¡¦2£G¡÷B2£S and E2£U+¡÷A2£U+ transitions. In the presence of foreign gas, the collisional quenching effect plays an important role on the fluorescence intensity of C(0) and D(0).We measure the quenching half pressure P1/2 of D(0) respectively. The potential well depth of van der Walls molecule NO-M can be derived from the measured quenching half pressure. In contrast to quenching, the fluorescence intensity of C(1), B(9), B(10) and B(11) are enhanced as the pressure of foreign gas is increased. The enchancement of the fluorescence intensity is attributed to the collisional removal of predissociation.

This thesis provides experimental static and dynamic results for four pairs of seals, including a pair of smooth seals and three pairs of centrally grooved seals. The grooved seals have groove depth to clearance ratios (Dg/C) of 5, 10, and 15. The radial clearance of each test seal is 0.0891 mm. Test conditions include three shaft rotational speeds from 4000 to 10000 rpm, three inlet oil pressures from 24 to 70 bars, and seal dimensionless eccentricities from 0 (centered) to 0.7. For each pair of test seals, dynamic results include stiffness and damping coefficients; static results include stator position, attitude angles, and seal leakage. Stiffness, damping, and leakage are compared among the seal pairs with various groove depths. Results show that all rotordynamic coefficients consistently decrease with increasing seal groove depths, and seal leakage remains constant through varying groove depths. Additionally, a comparison is made between experimental results of all test seals and XLLubeGT. XLLubeGT is a computer model developed at Texas A&M University, which uses a Reynolds equation + energy equation model to predict dynamic performance of a grooved seal. It operates on the assumption that the groove is large enough to create separate lands within the seal, creating a zero or negligible pressure perturbation across the seal. A comparison with XLLubeGT shows that even the seal with the largest groove depth tested is not deep enough to agree with XLLubeGT predictions.

This thesis proposes an enhanced ampere-hour counting method based on the depth-of-discharge (DOD) to estimate the state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) for lead-acid batteries. Not only the losses at different discharging currents, but also the releasable capacity at the exhausted state caused by the larger discharging current are considered and compensated. Furthermore, the SOH is revaluated at the exhausted state by the maximum releasable capacity, consequently leading to more accurate SOC estimation. Through the experiments that emulate practical operations, the experimental results reveal that the maximum error is less than 6 %.