Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'AMQ'

A mola propulsora desta investigação foi a baixa cobertura da Saúde da Família no município de Ribeirão Preto, assim como no estado de São Paulo, aliada à escassa produção sobre a análise do impacto da Estratégia em municípios de grande porte. A avaliação de serviços de saúde, e em específico, a auto-avaliação de uma equipe de Saúde da Família sobre o trabalho que realizam, oferecendo subsídios para incrementar a qualidade da assistência prestada à população adscrita, se constituem no foco desta investigação. Na busca de instrumentos para essa proposta de avaliação, conhecemos a Avaliação para a Melhoria da Qualidade (AMQ), proposta do Ministério da Saúde, de autoavaliação em diferentes níveis decisórios da Saúde da Família (gestores, coordenadores e equipes), com instrumentos de fácil compreensão e de respostas positivas ou negativas que levam ao processo de reflexão e auto-avaliação. A AMQ foi criada por experts em atenção primária e em avaliação de qualidade de serviços de saúde e validada posteriormente. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa foi analisar o processo de auto-avaliação desencadeado por uma equipe de Saúde da Família vinculada à Universidade de São Paulo, em Ribeirão Preto - SP, mediante a utilização da metodologia da AMQ. Tomando como opção a abordagem qualitativa para a realização da investigação pela natureza do objeto, foi selecionada uma das equipes de Saúde da Família dos Núcleos de Saúde da Família ligados à Universidade de São Paulo, tendo por critérios de inclusão: a anuência da equipe, sua disponibilidade de participação, a equipe encontrar-se completa e atendesse ao critério de antiguidade. A coleta de dados foi realizada de dezembro de 2009 a março de 2010, por meio de grupo focal, tendo como eixo temático a utilização da AMQ. Por meio da análise temática foram identificados os temas: construção e fortalecimento da Atenção Básica; a equipe na Saúde da Família - construção de possibilidades?; reflexões sobre o trabalho na unidade de Saúde da Família e a AMQ - possibilidades e críticas ao instrumento. A reflexão trouxe à tona os princípios da Atenção Básica possibilitando que a equipe repensasse as atividades que não são realizadas e aquelas que são, e que podem ser implementadas e qualificadas. Portanto, os princípios da Atenção Básica presentes no dia-a-dia do trabalho foram sendo identificados, apontados, compreendidos e valorizados pelos próprios trabalhadores permitindo repensar uma melhoria das condições de trabalho e conseqüentemente a qualificação do atendimento à população sob responsabilidade desta equipe. A análise também apontou as dificuldades e potencialidades que a equipe tem de ver a necessidade de articulação dos diversos fazeres e saberes e da troca de conhecimentos, proporcionando a oportunidade de olhar para o próprio trabalho e empreender um movimento de análise das atividades realizadas e como elas são realizadas, trazendo à tona vários aspectos do cotidiano do trabalho que, muitas vezes, não tinham sequer sido notados pela equipe. Olhar para o trabalho, para a rotina diária, para as divergências e convergências em relação ao trabalho desenvolvido, para os problemas enfrentados, para os sucessos alcançados, para o resgate do que deu certo em determinado momento do passado, para as intervenções propostas pela equipe, enfim, esta teve a possibilidade de retomar estes movimentos, e de alguma forma indicar elementos para o planejamento do trabalho na unidade visando à qualificação da atenção que prestam.
What motivated this study was the low coverage of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in the city of Ribeirão Preto and in the state of São Paulo, Brazil coupled with the scarcity of studies addressing the impact of the FHS in large cities. This study evaluates health care services. Specifically it proposes a self-evaluation of a FHS team concerning their work, aiming to support improvements in the quality of care delivered to the ascribed population. Searching for instruments to be used in this evaluation, we found the Evaluation for Quality Improvement (AMQ) proposed by the Ministry of Health, a self-evaluating instrument for different levels of decision-making in the FHS (managers, coordinators and teams), easy to understand with positive or negative answers that lead to a process of reflection and selfevaluation. The AMQ was developed by experts in primary health care and in evaluating quality of health services and was later validated. Thus this study analyzes a self-evaluation process triggered by the FHS team linked to the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto, SP through the AMQ methodology. Given the nature of the object of study, a qualitative approach was chosen. One of the FHS teams linked to the University of São Paulo was selected according to the following inclusion criteria: team\'s consent, its availability to participate, team was complete and met the seniority criterion. Data collection was carried out from December 2009 to March 2010 through focus group, whose thematic axis was the use of AMQ. The following themes were identified in the thematic analysis: constructing and strengthening Primary Care; the Family Health team - construction of possibilities?; reflections concerning the work in the FHS unit and the AMQ - possibilities and critiques to the instrument. The reflection revealed principles of Primary Care, which enabled the team to rethink activities that are not performed and those that are performed and which can be implemented and qualified. Hence, the Primary Care principles, present in daily practice, were identified, listed, understood, and valued by the workers themselves, which enable them to rethink the possibility of improving working conditions and consequently qualifying care delivered to the population under the responsibility of this team. The analysis also revealed difficulties and strengths and that the team needs to articulate several tasks and different types of knowledge and also exchange knowledge, enabling an opportunity to look at their own work and promote a movement to analyze activities performed and how they are performed, revealing several aspects of the work routine, which oftentimes are not even noticed by the team. Looking at the work, the daily routine, to divergences and convergences in relation to the work performed, to problems faced, achieved successes, to recover what have worked in a given point in the past, to interventions proposed by the team, and finally, it enabled the possibility to review these movements and somehow indicate elements for planning the work in the unit with a view to qualify care delivery.

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A qualificação da Atenção Primária à Saúde é um dos desafios para a consolidação do Sistema Único de Saúde. Neste sentido, a Política Nacional de Avaliação na Atenção Básica busca fornecer subsídios para uma melhor tomada de decisões no cotidiano dos serviços de saúde. Um de seus pilares, a Avaliação para a Melhoria da Qualidade da Estratégia Saúde da Família (AMQ), que tem como objetivo desenvolver estratégias de implantação da ESF de forma qualificada no nível local propõe metodologia de avaliação para a melhoria contínua da qualidade da ESF, definindo padrões de qualidade da ESF dispostos em um instrumento de monitoramento e avaliação utilizado pelos atores da atenção primária. Os objetivos deste estudo foram propor metodologia de análise da Avaliação para Melhoria da Qualidade da Estratégia de Saúde da Família (AMQ), o que permitiu avaliar a qualidade auto-referida da Estratégia Saúde da Família do estado do Espírito Santo segundo processos de trabalho das equipes de saúde e verificar a relação existente entre esta qualidade auto-referida e o tempo de implantação e cobertura populacional da ESF, além do porte populacional municipal. Delineou-se então um estudo ecológico retrospectivo de análise de dados secundários que teve como unidade de análise 46 municípios que aderiram ao processo de Avaliação para Melhoria da Qualidade da Estratégia de Saúde da Família (AMQ) no Espírito Santo até Dezembro de 2007. Utilizou-se banco de dados cedido pelo Ministério da Saúde. Foram desenvolvidos critérios de análise dos padrões de respostas das equipes de saúde da família ao AMQ, sendo feita a análise exploratória e multivariada dos dados. A metodologia proposta se mostrou pertinente para a identificação de problemas e potencialidades nos processos de trabalho das equipes de saúde, sugerindo sua utilização no processo decisório de gestores e trabalhadores envolvidos com o PSF. Os aspectos do processo de trabalho do PSF que se mostraram deficientes foram as atividades de promoção da saúde, a organização do trabalho das equipes de saúde e a articulação das equipes de saúde com a comunidade. As potencialidades identificadas estão relacionadas ao acolhimento, responsabilização e humanização do cuidado, bem como às ações de vigilância à saúde, o que sugere que a APS no Estado do Espírito Santo encontra-se em um estágio de transição em seu modelo assistencial. Por fim, a relação da qualidade auto-referida do PSF com o tempo de implantação e cobertura populacional desta, bem como com o porte populacional dos municípios, não se mostrou significativa, sugerindo que a continuidade do trabalho das equipes em uma mesma comunidade, contribuindo para a construção de vínculos, é fator preponderante na qualificação da APS no Brasil.

Apesar dos avanços, a Atenção Primária no Brasil ainda apresenta desafios para sua consolidação, justificando o esforço de diversas instituições no desenvolvimento de instrumentos de avaliação que possibilitem balizar as mudanças necessárias. Este estudo visa analisar o grau de concordância entre o Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool), validado internacionalmente, e a Avaliação para Melhoria da Qualidade da Estratégia Saúde da Família (AMQ), desenvolvido pelo Ministério da Saúde do Brasil e já utilizado por mais de 2000 equipes da Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF). Na análise realizada através do método de Bland-Altman observou-se que houve concordância (P>0,05) para os atributos integralidade (P=0,1898) e orientação familiar (P=0,0840) o que não ocorreu nos atributos acesso (P=0,0000), longitudinalidade (P=0,0002), coordenação do cuidado (P=0,0000) e orientação comunitária (P=0,0004), sugerindo que os instrumentos não são concordantes. Considerando os estudos publicados avaliando o PCATool em nosso meio, a ausência de estudos de validação do AMQ e a baixa concordância entre ambos, sugere-se que o PCATool seja utilizado como ferramenta preferencial na avaliação da qualidade da APS, bem como, a realização de estudos destinados à validação do AMQ.
Despite advances, the Primary Care in Brazil still presents challenges for its consolidation, justifying the effort of several institutions in the development of assessment tools that allow delimit the necessary changes. This study aims to assess the degree of agreement between the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool), internationally validated, and Evaluation for Quality Improvement Strategy for Family Health (AMQ), developed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and already used by more than 2000 Family Health Strategy teams (FHS). In the analysis performed by Bland-Altman analysis showed that there was agreement (P> 0.05) for the attributes of Comprehensiveness (P = 0.1898) and Family-Centeredness (P = 0.0840) which did not occur in attributes First Contact (P = 0.0000), Continuous care (P = 0.0002), coordination of care (P = 0.0000) and community orientation (P = 0.0004), suggesting that the instruments are not equivalent. Considering the published studies evaluating the PCATool in our midst, the lack of validation studies AMQ and low correlation between both, it is suggested that the PCATool be used as a preferred tool in assessing the quality of health care, as well as for studies for the validation of the AMQ.

Esse é um estudo transversal no campo da saúde coletiva e tem como tema a avaliação de serviços da Atenção Básica à Saúde, vinculados ou não ao ensino, em dois municípios do interior paulista. O objetivo geral foi avaliar e comparar o desempenho do processo de trabalho em equipe, segundo padrões de qualidade da Estratégia de Saúde da Família, baseando-se na Proposta AMQ-MS, em Unidades de Saúde da Família nos municípios de Ribeirão Preto e São José do Rio Pardo, e como específicos: descrever as características gerais das Unidades de Saúde da Família incluídas no estudo em Ribeirão Preto e São José do Rio Pardo; verificar os estágios de desenvolvimento alcançados pelos municípios considerando o componente de trabalho das equipes; descrever e analisar pontos fortes e fracos ao desenvolvimento da qualidade e avaliar comparativamente os resultados obtidos entre as equipes das unidades de Ribeirão Preto, onde há atividades de ensino de e São José do Rio Pardo, onde tais atividades não existem. No período de abril a junho de 2011, foram aplicados os instrumentos 04 e 05 do AMQ, ambos relacionados à Unidade de Análise: a Equipe. Foi realizada análise de concordância para fins comparativos, enquanto que para verificar associação, foi empregada a razão de prevalência (RP) e seu intervalo de confiança a 95% (IC 95%) como estimadora de magnitude entre variáveis. Para comparação de proporções foi empregado o teste de Z. Em todas as análises considerou-se um nível de significância de 5%. A concordância entre os resultados foi feita por meio da estatística Kappa. A pesquisa revelou que as USF pesquisadas em Ribeirão Preto não foram privilegiadas em qualidade quando comparadas as USF pesquisadas em São José do Rio Pardo, onde referente à Consolidação ao Modelo o município de Ribeirão Preto encontrou-se no estágio considerado satisfatório e São José do Rio Pardo no estágio considerado regular. Em relação à Atenção a Saúde e no Componente: Equipes, envolvendo os dois instrumentos, os dois municípios se enquadram no estágio satisfatório. O pior desempenho por subdimensão foi apresentado na Participação Comunitária e Controle Social considerado fraco. Observou-se não linearidade entre a complexidade de implementação dos processos de trabalho e a autoavaliacão das equipes de saúde da família dos municípios estudados.
This is a cross-sectional study in the public health field and has as its theme the service evaluation of Primary Health in two municipalities of São Paulo. The overall objective was to evaluate and compare the performance of the process of teamwork, according to the quality standards of the Family Health Strategy, based on the Proposal AMQ-MS in Family Health Units in the municipalities of Ribeirão Preto and São José Rio Pardo, and specific as to describe the general characteristics of the Family Health Units included in the study in Ribeirão Preto and São José do Rio Pardo, check the stages of development achieved by considering the component municipalities work teams; describe and analyze strengths and weaknesses to the development of quality and benchmark results between teams units Ribeirão Preto, where there are activities for teaching and Sao Jose do Rio Pardo, where such activities do not exist. In the period April to June 2011 were applied instruments 4 and 5 of AMQ, both related to the Unit of Analysis: Team. Statistical analyzes were performed, in the forms of agreement analysis for comparative purposes, while checking for association, we used the prevalence ratio and its confidence interval at 95% (95% IC) as an estimate of magnitude between variables. For comparison of proportions test was used to Z. In all analyzes it was considered a significance level of 5%. The agreement between the results was made by Kappa. The research revealed that the USF surveyed in Ribeirão Preto were not privileged in quality when compared to USF surveyed in São José do Rio Pardo, where on the Consolidation Model to the city of Ribeirão Preto found himself on stage as satisfactory and São José do Rio Pardo on stage considered regular. Regarding Health Care and Component: Teams, involving the two instruments, the two municipalities fall within the satisfactory stage. The worst performance by subdimension was featured on \"Community Participation and Social Control\" considered weak. Observed nonlinearity between the implementation complexity of work processes and selfassessment of family health teams in the cities studied.

This diploma thesis deals with the area of software testing, more precisely with the topic of managing test results. The aim of this work is to find, set up and implement a system that complements the missing functionality of the TMT tool, which is going to replace the Nitrate tool in Red Hat as a test management system. The content of this work is a basic introduction to the tools Nitrate, TMT and other technologies used in Red Hat. Furthermore, the work presents the current state of the test infrastructure and collected user requirements for a new system for managing test results. Subsequently, the ReportPortal tool is introduced as a system for test results management and the missing functionality is defined. The rest of the work is devoted to setting up the system itself and implementing the missing functionality, along with implementing the infrastructure needed to import test results into ReportPortal. The work describes the method of deploying the system in use and feedback from users. The deployed system is evaluated and its further possible improvements are discussed.

Dans cette thèse, nous étudions la conception de cryptosystèmes multivariés qui sont résistants contre les ordinateurs classiques et quantiques. En particulier, nous proposons deux schémas de signature digitale que j'ai soumis au processus de standardisation de cryptographie post-quantique du NIST : GeMSS et DualModeMS. Ces schémas sont basés sur la famille HFE. Nous proposons des paramètres de sécurité basés sur un état de l'art de vingt ans de cryptanalyse intensive. Puis, nous sélectionnons des paramètres qui maximisent l'efficacité. Nous la mesurons avec une nouvelle bibliothèque : MQsoft. MQsoft est une bibliothèque efficace en C qui supporte un large ensemble de paramètres pour les schémas basés sur HFE. Sa performance surpasse toutes les bibliothèques existantes. Nous expliquons dans cette thèse comment nous obtenons une telle performance. Tandis que GeMSS est un schéma qui a une grande clé publique, mais une signature très courte, DualModeMS est basé sur une transformation qui inverse ce comportement. Cependant, sa sécurité est basée sur l'hypothèse que le problème AMQ est difficile. Nous démontrons que cette hypothèse est vérifiée, et nous confirmons nos résultats avec des expériences utilisant les bases de Gröbner. Finalement, nous proposons la première implémentation de DualModeMS. Nous étudions comment l'implémenter efficacement, et comment optimiser le choix des paramètres de sécurité. Nous étendons aussi DualModeMS à l'utilisation du cryptosystème Rainbow à la place de HFE. Ceci permet d'obtenir des tailles de clés et signature intéressantes
In this thesis, we study the design of multivariate cryptosystems, which are resistant against classical and quantum computers. In particular, we study two digital signature schemes that I submitted to the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography standardization process: GeMSS and DualModeMS. These schemes are based on the HFE family. We propose security parameters based on a state-of-the-art of twenty years of intensive cryptanalysis. Then, we select secure parameters which maximize the practical efficiency. We measure this with a new library: MQsoft. MQsoft is a fast library in C which supports a large set of parameters for HFE-based schemes. Its performance outperforms all existing libraries. We explain in this thesis how we obtain this result. Whereas GeMSS is a scheme which has a large public-key but a very short signature, DualModeMS is based on a transformation inverting this trade-off. However, its security is based on the assumption that the AMQ problem is hard. We demonstrate that this assumption is verified, and we confirm our results with experiences using Gröbner basis. Finally, we propose the first implementation of DualModeMS. We study how to implement it efficiently, as well as how to optimize the choice of security parameters. We also extend DualModeMS to the Rainbow cryptosystem instead of HFE. This allows to have interesting key sizes and signature sizes

Der Roman „In hundert Jahren“ von Friedrich Eduard Bilz feiert im Juni 2007 seinen 100. Geburtstag – und niemand kennt ihn. In deutschen Bibliotheken ist bislang kein Exemplar nachgewiesen. Frank Andert machte im Radebeuler Heft „Vorschau und Rückblick“ auf ein Exemplar in Dresdner Privatbesitz aufmerksam. Nun will die Digitale Bibliothek der SLUB das seltene Buch zugänglich machen.

In the last years, the explosive development of wireless services and applications has produced an unprecedented revolution in wireless communications systems. The impact of wireless fading channels on the quality of service (QoS) provisioning for such heterogeneous mobile users is one of the most challenging issues for nextgeneration wireless networks. In order to support the diverse QoS requirements of wireless applications, innovative techniques have been proposed at the physical (PHY) layer. Among them, the rate-adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) scheme has received significant research attention, resulting in its adoption in most state-of-the-art wireless communications standards. With the aim of enhancing the link reliability to guarantee the QoS constraints of new applications, most modern communication systems use error control strategies at the data link control (DLC) layer. Among them, we can distinguish two basic approaches: the forward error correction (FEC) scheme, in which an errorcorrection code is used, and the automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme, in which a code with good error-detection capability is used. In the latter case, when a received codeword is detected in error, the packet is retransmitted until it is correctly received (infinitely persistent ARQ) or until a preset number of retransmissions have taken place (truncated ARQ). In order to achieve the advantages of both strategies, most state-of-the-art wireless communications standards use combinations of ARQ and FEC. Moreover, recent proposals make use of one or multiple intermediate relay stations to forward data from a source node to the corresponding destination node. As a result, a performance improvement is obtained due to spatial diversity, which is generated by transmitting signals from different locations (source and relay(s)), thus providing independently faded versions of the signal at the receiver. Cross-layer design in wireless networks, where one allows the stack protocol layers to interact and share information, has become increasingly popular over the past few years. In particular, many recent cross-layer proposals coincide in combining AMC at the PHY layer with an ARQ protocol at the DLC layer. These cross-layer designs improve the spectral efficiency by jointly exploiting the adaptability of AMC to the wireless channel conditions and the error-correcting capability of ARQ-based error control strategies. The main goal of this dissertation is to provide a unified view of the crosslayer design, analysis and optimization of AMC/ARQ-based wireless systems to allow the joint optimization of both the PHY and the DLC layers. The adopted approach for tackling this problem will rely on the use of discrete time Markov i chains (DTMCs) to jointly consider the packet arrival, the queueing process and the PHY layer. To that end, a novel first-order two-dimensional Markov model of the PHY layer is developed, which takes into account the wireless channel characteristics and de AMC scheme. The availability of accurate models for the PHY layer characterization is one of the key motivations of this work in order to guarantee a correct analysis of the QoS metrics at the DLC layer. Using this model, the interactions between the PHY and DLC layers are analyzed either when infinitely persistent or truncated ARQ-based error control protocols are implemented. Additionally, a cooperative scheme is also proposed, in which the relay node is in charge of retransmitting the erroneously received packets at the destination. This DTMC-based model allows the analytic derivation of various system performance metrics, namely, throughput, average packet delay and packet loss rate (both due to buffer overflow and due to exceeding the maximum number of allowed retransmissions). For the sake of comparison with non Markov-based analytical tools, the infinitely persistent ARQ protocol is also analyzed through the effective bandwidth/capacity theory. Both analytical frameworks are compared, showing the superiority of the Markov-based approach, which more faithfully reproduces the real system behaviour at the cost of higher complexity in the analysis. The proposed analytical framework allows the formulation of cross-layer multidimensional design strategies, aiming at the maximization of the average throughput of the system while satisfying prescribed QoS requirements in the form of average packet loss rate and average delay. Finally, an explicit analysis of the impact on the system performance of the delay in the channel state information (CSI) feedback is also presented.
No hi ha cap dubte que en els darrers anys els serveis i les aplicacions en entorns de comunicacions sense fils han experimentat un desenvolupament sense precedents. Les demandes creixents en termes de taxa de transmissió i de mobilitat per part dels usuaris s’han d’afegir a la heterogeneïtat dels requeriments de qualitat de servei (QoS, de l’anglès Quality of Service) de les aplicacions. A tot això s’hi ha de sumar l’efecte dels esvaïments selectius, tant en temps com en freqüència, intrínsecs als canals sense fils. Aleshores, el desenvolupament d’aquest tipus de sistemes representa un vertader repte a l’hora de dissenyar solucions capaces de suportar les exigències de QoS, com per exemple taxa màxima d’error de paquet o bé retard màxim, tant per a les aplicacions mòbils actuals com per a les futures. S’ha desenvolupat un gran nombre d’estratègies amb l’objectiu de fer front a l’impacte dels esvaïments sobre les prestacions d’aquests sistemes i aconseguir així millorar l’eficiència espectral i/o energètica de la capa física. Entre elles es poden destacar els esquemes de modulació i codificació adaptativa (AMC, de l’anglès Adaptive Modulation and Coding). La immensa majoria dels actuals estàndards de comunicacions sense fils han adoptat aquesta tècnica, que consisteix bàsicament en ajustar la modulació i la codificació a les condicions canviants del canal. Per altra banda, els requeriments de QoS de les noves aplicacions tan sols es poden satisfer amb l’ajut d’esquemes que permeten millorar la fiabilitat de l’enllaç. Així, l’ús d’estratègies de control d’errors a la capa d’enllaç de dades (DLC, de l’anglès Data Link Control) s’ha convertit en una part fonamental dels sistemes de comunicacions actuals. Les tècniques de control d’errors es poden classificar bàsicament en dues categories. La primera la formen els esquemes que permeten la detecció i possible correcció d’errors (FEC, de l’anglès Forward Error Correction), mentre que la segona categoria correspon als esquemes que possibiliten la detecció d’errors i la sol·licitud de retransmissió (ARQ, de l’anglès Automatic Repeat Request). En aquest cas, quan un paquet és rebut amb errors, es va demanant la seva retransmissió fins que es rep correctament (persistència infinita) o bé fins que se supera el màxim nombre permès de retransmissions (truncat). La majoria dels estàndards de comunicacions sense fils moderns utilitzen combinacions dels esquemes FEC i ARQ per tal de gaudir dels avantatges d’ambdues estratègies. S’ha d’afegir, a més, que existeixen multitud de propostes recents en què es disposa d’un o varis nodes intermediaris entre la font i el destí, anomenats repetidors (en anglès relays), que assisteixen la comunicació. S’aconsegueix així millorar l’efectivitat de la transmissió explotant la diversitat espacial resultant de la incorporació de camins addicionals de comunicació entre la font i el destí. D’acord amb la filosofia del disseny intercapes (en anglès cross-layer), en contraposició a l’optimització local a cada capa de la pila de protocols, es du a terme una optimització conjunta de determinats paràmetres corresponents a distintes capes, amb la finalitat de millorar les prestacions del sistema en la seva globalitat. En contret, en els darrers temps han aparegut un gran nombre de propostes de dissenys intercapes que combinen la utilització d’esquemes AMC a la capa física amb l’ús de protocols ARQ a la capa d’enllaç de dades. Aquests dissenys aconsegueixen millorar l’eficiència espectral traient profit de manera conjunta de l’adaptabilitat d’AMC a les condicions canviants del canal sense fils i de la capacitat detectora/correctora d’errors d’ARQ. En aquest treball de recerca es desenvolupa un marc teòric per al disseny, l’anàlisi i l’optimització intercapes de sistemes sense fils que combinen esquemes AMC amb protocols ARQ. Aquesta proposta es basa en la utilització de cadenes discretes de Markov (DTMC, de l’anglès Discrete Time Markov Chain) per descriure de manera conjunta el comportament estadístic del procés d’arribades de paquets, el sistema de cues i la capa física. Per això, en primer lloc es desenvolupa un model de Markov bidimensional de primer ordre de la capa física que té en compte les característiques del canal sense fils i l’esquema AMC. Aquest és un pilar fonamental pel desenvolupament del present treball de recerca, ja que disposar d’un model capaç de capturar amb precisió el comportament de la capa física és un requisit indispensable per a garantir una anàlisi correcta dels paràmetres de QoS a la capa d’enllaç de dades. En base a aquest model, s’investiguen les interaccions entre aquestes dues capes quan s’implementen protocols ARQ, ja sigui amb persistència infinita o truncats. A més, es proposa un esquema cooperatiu en què un node repetidor és l’encarregat de dur a terme les retransmissions dels paquets que la font no aconsegueix transmetre correctament al destí. A partir de la modelització basada en DTMCs es poden obtenir les expressions analítiques dels paràmetres que caracteritzen el comportament de les prestacions del sistema, com són la taxa efectiva de transmissió de paquets (en anglès throughput), el retard mitjà i la taxa mitjana de pèrdua de paquets, ja sigui per desbordament de les cues o bé per superar el nombre màxim permès de retransmissions. Amb el propòsit de comparar aquesta metodologia amb eines analítiques no basades en l’ús de cadenes de Markov, el cas d’ARQ amb persistència infinita s’analitza també aplicant la teoria d’amplada de banda i capacitat efectives. Ambdues anàlisis són detalladament contrastades, confirmant la superioritat del primer mètode quant a fidelitat en l’estimació del comportament del sistema real, a costa d’un increment en la complexitat de l’anàlisi. El model analític proposat és utilitzat per a desenvolupar distintes estratègies de disseny intercapes amb l’objectiu de proporcionar garanties de QoS en termes de retard màxim i taxa màxima de pèrdua de paquets. Per acabar, s’investiguen els efectes que té el retard en l’estimació de l’estat del canal sobre els paràmetres de QoS del sistema.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1999.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-90).
In this thesis, I investigate new ways to use affective computing and multimedia tools to augment a child's learning of emotional expression. I develop the hypothesis that these tools can be particularly useful to children with autism and their practitioners. I test the hypothesis by building a candidate research system that comprises a screen on which are shown emotionally charged animated movie clips, together with a set of stuffed dolls through which a child can interact with the movies. Each doll embodied an emotional expression: happy, angry, sad, and surprise. In operation, the test children are shown one of 200 emotive clips and they respond by touching the doll whose expression matches that of the clip. An online guide and registration system allows a therapist to control and monitor the interactions. Six volunteer test children used the system at the Dan Marino Center in Ft Lauderdale and their reactions were observed. This served as verification that a system that manipulated movies and haptic interfaces was feasible and second, such a system could augment and potentially automate some of the human-intensive, repetitive aspects of existing behavioral therapy techniques. All six children responded to and attended to the system, with five of them completing three one-hour day visits comprising multiple sessions. Some children showed improvement in their matching of emotions and one child demonstrated generalization in a home setting.
Katharine Howard Blocher.
S.M.

Nitrogen (N) is a key macronutrient required for plant growth and development. Ammonium (NH4+) is the preferred N source for many plants where it is sourced from the soil solution. In low-N soil, soybean can form a symbiotic relationship with compatible soil bacteria (rhizobia) to generate a structure called a nodule. Inside the nodule, differentiated bacteroids fix atmospheric N2 to NH4+ which can be assimilated by the plant to meet plant N demand. NH4+ generated by bacteroids must traverse plant membranes, initially the symbiosome membrane encircling the bacteroid and then possibly the plasma membrane and tonoplast membrane of neighbouring infected and uninfected cells. Plants manage NH4+ transport through two pathways, a low-affinity (activity at concentrations > 0.5 mM NH4+) transport system (LATS) and a high-affinity (activity at concentrations <0.5 mM NH4+) transport system (HATS). It has been suggested members of the AMT (high-affinity ammonium transporter) and AMF (ammonium major facilitator, non-AMT) type NH4+ transporters operate respectively as HATS and LATS pathways, and play an important role in the management of legume fixed NH4+ in the nodule. Thirteen AMT and 5 AMF genes were identified in an updated version of the soybean genome database (Phytozome ver.12.1.6) and based on elevated transcription levels in root nodules, 5 AMT (GmAMT1;2, GmAMT1;3, GmAMT1;6, GmAMT2;1 and GmAMT2;2) and 3 AMF (GmAMF3, GmAMF4 and GmAMF5) were studied in detail. Gene expression analysis found select AMT and AMF genes are preferentially expressed in roots and nodules over other organs tested. The different spatial expression patterns and transcriptional responses across the AMT and AMF genes indicated multiple individual roles for each gene to meet plant NH4+ transport demands. Functional characterization studies in yeast revealed GmAMT1;2, GmAMT1;3 and GmAMT2;1 were capable of recovering cell growth of the NH4+ transport mutant 31019b when grown on low NH4+, while GmAMT2;1 and GmAMF5 were capable of rescuing cell growth of the NH4+ sensitive K+ transport mutant CY162, when grown at low K+ and high NH4+. It was suggested that in yeast cells, both GmAMT2;1 and GmAMF5 may efflux NH4+ from the vacuole to the cytoplasm to support cell growth. GmAMT1;2 and GmAMT1;3 proteins were found active when expressed in both yeast and Xenopus oocytes while GmAMT2;1 and GmAMF5 were found functional only in yeast cells. Kinetic studies revealed that GmAMT1;2, 1;3 and 2;1 proteins were selective high-affinity NH4+ transporters. Subcellular localization revealed GmAMT1;2, GmAMT1;3 and GmAMT2;1 localized to the plasma membrane. GmAMT2;1 also co-localized to the tonoplast while GmAMF5 was localized exclusively to the tonoplast. RNAi mediated silencing of the GmAMT1;2, GmAMT1;3 and GmAMT2;1 transcript levels in soybean resulted in significant downregulation of nodule number, but downregulation of transcription did not impair N2-fixation rates in nodules. It appears GmAMT transporters are not involved in N2-fixation, rather play a role in NH4+ dependent nodule development. Based on the data generated in this project, two NH4+ transport mechanisms were proposed for yeast and legume nodules, which has enriched our understanding regarding NH4+ transport in soybean nodules.

The major objective of present study is to find out the sources which cause higher Work in Process (WIP) in the production line. In which a detailed analysis is performed in the area of inventory, reorder point, Takt time, and Kanban. All the analyses are based on the data obtained from the company’s ERP system and have been used to run some scenarios during the analysis.Lots of problems are responsible to cause higher WIP. But current report only focuses and concentrates in leveling the work load, implementing pull system, suggesting reorder point and Takt time.The current situation is described through Value-stream Map (VSM) and the impact cost matrix is used to show the impact of each problem in the production line in terms of costs. In the analysis chapter, root cause method has been used in order to show the cause and effect of higher WIP. Detailed analyses together with explanations are listed by orders. Therefore, three major suggestions are proposed and the future VSM is plotted to show the effect and change of the suggestions which helps to improve the current situation by eliminating the waste.

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A pesquisa de novos materiais apresentando propriedades ópticas não lineares encontra na química quântica a possibilidade de projetar moléculas orgânicas com as respostas otimizadas. Para sistemas do tipo doador-pontereceptor, isto pode ser realizado pela combinação adequada dos componentes de sua estrutura química, isto é, o grupo doador(D) de elétron, a ponte e o grupo receptor(R) de elétron. Desse modo, selecionamos para esta investigação, as estruturas de pontes conjugadas associadas a pares D/R mais eficientes. Assim, modelamos neste trabalho, diferentes classes de moléculas orgânicas D-ponte-R que apresentam elevadas magnitudes da primeira e segunda hiperpolarizabilidade, β e γ, respectivamente. Os valores das hiperpolarizabilidades β e γ foram obtidos através da metodologia semi-empírica AM1/TDHF. Os sistemas modelados apresentam potencial uso como materiais ópticos não lineares de segunda e terceira ordem. As pontes constituídas de unidades poliênicas foram abordadas para a modelagem de séries do tipo D-R, D-D e R-R. O sistema mais estendido do tipo D-R, contendo oito ligações duplas alternadas, apresenta um desempenho alto em relação às respostas não lineares β e γ. Em seguida, projetamos um novo modelo de ponte mista que apresenta anéis mesoiônicos inseridos em unidades poliênicas, que contribui para a obtenção de magnitudes das hiperpolarizabilidades β e γ ainda mais elevadas. Esses sistemas D-ponte-R modelados, apresentando as pontes mistas,mostram uma promissora perspectiva de aplicações. Também, avaliamos a metodologia AM1/TDHF em relação às hiperpolarizabilidades β e γ, considerando derivados poliênicos caracterizados experimentalmente na literatura. Os resultados demonstram, que esta metodologia semi-empírica é adequada para a modelagem e seleção de moléculas orgânicas com as respostas não lineares otimizadas. A seleção do par D/R mais eficiente envolveu a investigação de diferentes forças de grupos doadores e receptores, citados na literatura. Neste trabalho, a fenilamina (D) é conectada à ponte via heteroátomo N, contrastando com o relatado na literatura, em que a ligação se realiza através do grupo fenila. A presença do heteroátomo N com um par isolado, conectado diretamente a uma extremidade da ponte, um sistema π-polarizável, associado a um forte receptor ligado na outra extremidade, resultou em um desempenho diferenciado em relação às hiperpolarizabilidades β e γ para todos os sistemas modelados. Em adição, estudamos o caso onde o heteroátomo N é ausente, isto é, somente a fenila compõe o grupo doador. Portanto, realizamos uma análise do papel do heteroátomo, por considerarmos os diferentes sítios de ligação do grupo fenilamina. Para comparar o desempenho das pontes insaturadas em relação às pontes saturadas, estudamos as pontes de derivados da n-arilapiperidina e do narilatropano. Estas moléculas D-ponte-R contêm apenas ligações saturadas na ponte, e exibem β da ordem da 4-nitroanilina. Verificamos que, aumentando o tamanho da ponte nestas espécies não resulta na otimização das respostas não lineares β e γ, comportamento este oposto ao observado nos sistemas com as pontes conjugadas Os oligômeros das formas neutras da polianilina (leucoesmeraldina, esmeraldina e pernigranilina), que é um material extremamente versátil, foram investigados. A funcionalização desses oligômeros resultou em hiperpolarizabilidades β elevadas, demonstrando que estas espécies podem ser otimizadas a partir do uso de pares D/R mais poderosos. Os resultados AM1/TDHF da hiperpolarizabilidade γ (estática) para os trímeros modelo apresentam a mesma tendência observada experimentalmente para a polianilina

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of self-initiated professional development of English language teachers at English Language School of BaSkent University. Within this framework, teachers&
#8217
attitudes towards their professional development, their perceptions of major professional development activities, and the factors that hinder change and growth in teachers were investigated. The data collection instrument used was a questionnaire administered to 110 English language teachers at BaSkent University. The questionnaire consisted of both open-ended and close-ended items and the data collected were analyzed descriptively to understand the general trends and differences among teachers. The data analysis revealed that the teachers agreed with most of the concepts that reflect the importance of professional development. In addition, they were aware of the importance of major professional development activities for their growth. However, peer observation and action research, which are developmental activities, were not favoured as much as the other activities. In addition, it was found that the teachers did not make use of the activities as much as they gave importance to. Furthermore, teachers showed significant differences in importance given to and making use of the activities by the background variables. Female teachers, young teachers and the teachers who do not have much experience seemed to give more importance to and actualize some of the professional development activities more than the other teachers. Meanwhile, it was also noted that the listed factors that hinder growth were all found important by the teachers. The most important impediments to growth were indicated as excessive workload, lack of self-motivation and lack of institutional support for professional development.

iii ABSTRACT STUDENTS&
#8217
PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ONLINE ASSESSMENT : A CASE STUDY Sanli, Refik M.S. Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology Supervisor : Prof. Dr. M. YaSar Ö
ZDEN SEPTEMBER 2003 ,105 pages For many reasons, the use of computer based of assessment is increasing. Although there is an increasing usage of computer based exams, there are not enough researches about student perception towards online assessment in general and perception of students towards categorized fields of online assessment systems. To figure out the students&
#8217
perceptions of online assessment an exam web site has been developed and implemented. This web site is a database driven web site and containing multiple choice questions. This online assessment site used as assessment module of Masaü
stü
Yayincilik course given by Department of Computer Education, Kocaeli University. The perceptions of the students&
#8217
towards online assessment have been evaluated in terms of User interface, Impacts on learning process, System usage and general opinions on online assessment. The aim of the study is to investigate students&
#8217
perceptions of the use of CAA and to investigate the potential for using student feedback in the validation of assessment. The results indicated that students have positive attitudes against online assessment. Results of questionnaires showed that user interface of the assessment web site is proper and well designed but need to be further development. The system use of the web site is easy. The impacts of the learning progress of the web site are sufficient but assessment web site should be developed by enriching the system components meeting the student needs. Security should be ensured.

This study examines students&
#65533
perceptions about level of communication, online course support, satisfaction in a web enhanced course and students&
#65533
feelings about computers and the web. Addition to them gender differences in students&
#65533
perceptions were studied. The data were collected by using survey at the end of the term and analyzed by using descriptive statistical analyzing methods. Results showed that students&
#65533
feelings about computers and the web were slightly positive. Students&
#65533
perceptions about online course support were slightly positive. Students&
#65533
perceptions were neutral about level of communication and satisfaction results. No difference has found in students&
#65533
computer and the web feelings, level of communication, online course support and satisfaction results in terms of gender.

This thesis assesses how technology policy, R&
D activities and innovativeness interact to yield higher economic performance in Turkish manufacturing industries. The first aim of this thesis is to analyze the role of R&
D support programs as one of the instruments of technology policy on the demand for researchers. We evaluated the impact of R&
D support receiving on the demand for researchers by estimating a two stage treatment effect model that solves the problem of selection bias and found that receiving R&
D support encourages firms to demand more researchers. The second aim of this thesis is to analyze the determinants of generating product and process innovations. We evaluated the determinants of generating product and process innovations by estimating a bivariate probit model and found that the determinants of generating product and process innovations were related but they varied with the technological level and opportunity of the industry. The last aim of this thesis is to analyze the effect of product and process innovations on employment. We hypothesized that these two types of innovations have different impacts on employment and test this hypothesis by estimating two different econometric models: the first one is a treatment effect model controlling for the endogeneity of innovations and the second one is a selection model that controls for survival status of the firm. We found that the impact of product innovations on the employment growth rate is negative and the impact of process innovations on the employment growth rate is positive regardless of technology level of industries.

This study examines critically how women in poverty use their labor in the production and reproduction processes against poverty and the effects of these processes on women becoming poor referring to women&
#8217
s knowledge. The material foundation of women&
#8217
s poverty is conceptualized as a two-way devaluation of women&
#8217
s labor used in social reproduction. Patriarchal, cultural and ideological structures and relationships are studied as other determinants of women&
#8217
s poverty. In this framework, women&
#8217
s poverty studied based on a field research conducted on 120 women in EskiSehir province, consisting of regular and irregular workers, housewives, married and single mothers. Household is the basic unit of analysis of women&
#8217
s poverty. The scope that women&
#8217
s poverty experiences are questioned are the following: women&
#8217
s labor in production process, women&
#8217
s domestic labor, women participating in social life, violence against women, their perception of poverty and their place in power relations.

iv In this study, an Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based approach was developed in order to measure the performance of customer-based Research and Development projects being executed in TÜ
BTAKSAGE, Defense Research and Development Institute, under the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. In order to evaluate project performance, many criteria, containing various subcriteria were determined. In order to handle the interdependencies among the criteria and the sub-criteria, ANP was used. The ANP model generated in this study is a hybrid model consisting of both a hierarchy and a network. The pairwise comparison matrices that were built up for defining the importance and influences of the criteria/sub-criteria in the ANP model were formed as interval judgments from a group decision making process, based on data obtained from a questionnaire conducted among the experts in the Institute. From the interval pairwise comparison matrices, weight intervals for the sub-criteria were determined and these bounds were used as assurance region constraints in a super-efficiency DEA model, through which the project ranking was obtained. Taking into consideration that there may occur some missing values in some projects for some of the sub-criteria, the superefficiency DEA model was extended to handle missing data. The model was applied to a real case study on performance evaluation of the ongoing customer-based projects in the Institute. For comparison purposes, the case study was also solved by two other approaches.

This thesis aims to create new perspectives in urban lighting design by discovering people&
#8217
s preferences in urban lighting through an exploratory research on people&
#8217
s perceptive experience of urban space at night. In this study, I aim to analyze the common approaches and methods of urban lighting design and make their critique through my research results. Primary research objectives include the evaluation of what people perceive from the urban lighting design and how they feel about the design outcomes. In order to explore people&
#8217
s experience of lit urban space at night, my research comprises a survey that aims to discover people&
#8217
s opinions on certain lit urbanscenes collected from the city of Ankara. Urban lighting design is a discipline that emerged to improve the aesthetic quality of urban space. It has significant effects on people and consequently on urban life. However, in this discipline, exploration of people&
#8217
s needs and preference is a neglected phenomenon. Therefore, this study suggests that it is necessary to review the designer-centered perspective on urban lighting design and question whether existing approach to this discipline has preferable outcomes for people. Through this research I aim to test whether it is appropriate to pursue and carry out the existing type of lighting design, and propose new perspectives to urban lighting.

It is a great advantage of gaining knowledge about the environment for navigation. The environment should be measured during the employment as exactly as possible, in order to be able to react correctly. Robots are being used for different tasks at contaminated environments, places in danger or completely safe places. For robotic use, scanning capabilities of the environment are limited at the present. Adhering to the limitations of the scanning systems, the environment is scanned at a particular level and charted with appropriate software. In some cases, this scanning capability is not enough to react correctly. Taking these needs into consideration, this thesis successfully demonstrates the design and implementation of a scanning platform for mobile robotics. A scanning platform with a laser rangefinder scanner will be addressed in a compact design with maximum field of view for quickly mapping and high resolution. With this design, the scanning system will be provided by rotating laser rangefinder at z-axis in one dimension. Laser rangefinder will also measure the distance as the second dimension of the system. Also it rotates the laser beam at another axis which is different from the measuring distance axis and rotary z-axis. In this way, the scanning system will have the three-dimensional scanning ability. This design allows the scanning platform, continuous scanning capability at three dimensional.

Using qualitative analysis, this thesis analyzes intergenerational support, conflict, and ambivalence between aging mothers and their middle aged adult daughters. In-depth interviews with 30 mother-daughter pairs explored respondents&
#8217
relationship history, changes in the relationship over the life course (childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, marriage of daughter, parenthood of daughter, widowhood of mother), social network composition, frequency of contact, expectations, type and frequency of intergenerational support, intimacy, compliance, conflict or disagreement, and comparison of self with the other party in terms of parenting styles and filial behaviors. Moreover, similarities and differences in the personalities of mother-daughter dyads were investigated from both mothers and daughters perspective. Participants reported that, there is an ample amount of intergenerational support between aging mothers and their adult daughters. Conflicts between mother-daughter pairs arise from interference, irritating personality traits and behaviors and differing views. Daughters experience more ambivalent feelings than mothers in their relationship. Both parties employ passive and secondary relationship maintenance tactics with the goal of preserving relationship harmony. Three distinct types of mother-daughter relationship emerged: close/peaceful, ambivalent and distant. Mother-daughter relationships have undergone transformations with life stages: daughters&
#8217
marriage, daughters&
#8217
parenthood, mothers&
#8217
aging and declining health and mothers&
#8217
widowhood. Effects of certain historical events and social changes emerged from the study. The research findings were discussed with reference to Turkish cultural characteristics and they were compared with Western research findings.

The main aim of this study is to investigate the tools of the women&
#8217
s activism which are used in transforming the gender equality agenda in Turkey in terms of legislative reform. To illustrate and study of the tools of women&
#8217
s activism descriptively, a case study on the women&
#8217
s activism for legislative reform in Turkey is conducted. The findings of the research verified the research thesis that women&
#8217
s activism that occurred after 1980s and institutionalized during 1990s was incredibly influential in transforming the Turkey&
#8217
s political agenda. The inner organization manner of women&
#8217
s movement, its use of the media, lobbying activities such as finding allies in the commission and parliament, engagement with international women&
#8217
s rights mechanisms, conducting effective communication through list-serve, arranging street demonstrations and actions can be enumerated as important tools.

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the concept of &lsquo
European identity&rsquo
within the context of the European Union (EU) in terms of constructivist approach. This thesis is based on the idea that European integration project needs a shared identity
it is essential means for the success and continuity of an &lsquo
ever closer Union&rsquo
. In this context, the aim of the thesis is to find out the answers to the questions of whether the EU has a European identity
whether a post-national European identity is viable and desirable
if so, which model of identity is more viable and desirable. Through adopting the constructivist approach the main argument of this thesis is that a European identity is as a process and project. The thesis further argues European identity as a &lsquo
thin&rsquo
identity is still in the process of formation and its uncertain content and &lsquo
future-oriented&rsquo
character is open to new codifications. Accordingly, the thesis contains three main parts
the viable and desirable post-national European identity
the EU&rsquo
s identity building strategies
the impact of European integration and the effects of identity-building strategies on both national and European identities since the 1950s to present.

This thesis describes the design, construction and testing of a new interferometer for the absolute measurement of length standards. It is assumed that this study mainly formed of three parts. Firstly, it starts with an introduction to the subject of length standards and length measurement by interferometry. The design of the new interferometer is given in detail, including the stable lasers used as light sources, fiber, optical and opto-mechanical components. In the second part of this study, the mechanical construction of the interferometer chamber is presented with temperature stabilization and controlling system. The temperature variations inside the chamber at different points in air and along the surface of the length standard are given. After that, the techniques for measurement of the refractive index of the air inside the interferometer chamber are summarized. In the last part of the thesis, a review of fringe analysis techniques is given, with an emphasis on 5 position phase-stepping algorithms. The data processing of images digitized in the interferometer is described, including the techniques developed for discontinuity removal and surface fitting. The measurement of the variation in length and flatness of the measuring faces of the length standards is described and the experimental results are given. The automated method of multiple wavelength-exact fractions is used to combine phase measurements at three wavelengths to allow accurate calculation of the length of the length standards. The experimental results are given for length standards. The uncertainty budget of whole system is calculated and presented in a table.

It is a widely accepted fact that tourism has become a prominent part of local economic development regarding to global economic restructuring and over the last two decades many regions have achieved tourism-led local economic development. The concept of &
#8216
Institutional Thickness&
#8217
which has been introduced within the context of institutional turn in economic geography and discussed intensively in local economic development context has important implications for tourism-led local economic development. The concept describes how institutional arrangements influence the capacity of localities to compete globally and emphasizes the importance of strong local institutional base and inter-institutional collaboration in local economic development. This thesis discusses tourism-led local economic development and the concept of institutional thickness and investigates how the concept relates to tourism-led local economic development. It aims to make an empirical assessment of institutional thickness. Using case study as a research method, the research focuses on Beypazari district that achieved domestic tourism development involving day excursions from the major metropolitan areas and trying to improve its local economy through tourism. In this locally initiated project, the local government collaborated with many institutions. The thesis assesses institutional thickness of Beypazari within its local economic development process. Keywords: Tourism, local economic development, institutional thickness

The territory of Pontus once occupied by the Mithridatic Kingdom in the Hellenistic Period and fell under the Roman Empire in the first century B.C., layed between the Pontus Euxine (Black Sea) and the northern edge of the Anatolian plateau. In his Geography Strabo describes Pontus with a detailed account of the settlements. In his description of his hometown Amaseia (Amasya today), he mentions a plain with 1000 villages called Chiliocomum. Indeed, the archaeological survey data indicates that there were a large number of settlements dating to the Hellenistic and the Roman period in this region. The aim of this thesis is to quantify the settlement - environment relationship and to investigate and compare settlement patterns in the Hellenistic and Roman periods by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Data sets are used in the study includes a settlement database, topography, road network, soil and current landuse which were spatially analysed in GIS. Raster analyses, proximity analyses and density analyses are conducted in order to understand and compare site distribution and landuse. The results of the GIS analyses revealed that settlements were located in particular areas of the landscape. Some of these areas continued to be settled from the Hellenistic through the Roman period, while others were abandoned and alternative landscapes have replaced them. The results of the various analyses were utilized to discuss issues related to the shift in the political power and the socio-political structure in the region from the Hellenistic and to the Roman period.

An LKW-Achsen werden hohe Anforderungen an Sauberkeit und Lackhaftung gestellt. Lackbenetzungsstörende Substanzen (LBS) müssen deshalb vor dem Lackierprozess entfernt werden. Ohne eine inlinefähige 100%-Kontrolle auf LBS können die Qualitätsanforderungen nicht erreicht werden. Am Beispiel einer inlinefähigen Detektion von LBS wird auf die Vorgehensweise bei F&E-Projekten des Fraunhofer IVV eingegangen: Anpassung des Messsystems an den Anwendungsfall, Erprobung der Messung am realen Objekt, Erstellung von Konzepten zur Umsetzung der Mess- und Kontrollaufgabe, Integration des Detektionsmoduls in die Fertigungslinie

Zwangserregtes Kupplungsrupfen ist ein Schwingungsphänomen, dessen Ursache in einer periodischen Modulation der Anpresskraft im Reibkontakt sowie des Drehmoments der Kupplung liegt. Diese periodische Modulation wird im Wesentlichen durch geometrische Abweichungen von der vorgesehenen Gestalt verursacht. Nach wie vor spielt es bei der Entwicklung von Kraftfahrzeugkupplungen eine große Rolle da die davon verursachten longitudinal Schwingungen des Fahrzeugs zu deutlichen Komforteinbußen der Fahrzeuginsassen führen. Obwohl bereits einige Einflussfaktoren des zwangserregten Kupplungsrupfens qualitativ bekannt sind, gibt es noch nicht für alle Einflussfaktoren geeignete, detaillierte Erklärungsmodelle, die Kupplungsentwicklern beim Verständnis der Wirkzusammenhänge von zwangserregtem Kupplungsrupfen unterstützen. Dies liegt unter anderem an den starken Wechselwirkungen, die über verschiedene Systemebenen auftreten und bisher kaum modelliert wurden. Daher werden in diesem Beitrag Gestalt-Funktion-Zusammenhänge auf zwangserregtes Kupplungsrupfen durch geometrische Abweichungen mithilfe des sogenannten C&C²-Ansatzes nach Albers und Matthiessen näher untersucht. Ein bereits vorhandenes Modell wird dabei um geeignete Granularitäten und Perspektiven erweitert und die Wirkzusammenhänge werden zu unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten als sogenannte Sequenzmodelle dargestellt. In einem iterativen Prozess werden sowohl Hypothesen als auch Modelle entwickelt und es werden experimentelle Untersuchungen abgeleitet. Ausgewählte Einflussfaktoren werden hierzu in Form von Variationen an einem Prüfstand untersucht, um die Hypothesen zu verifizieren oder zu falsifizieren, und es werden erste quantitative Ergebnisse gewonnen. Dies ermöglicht die Erklärung von Ursachen für zwangserregtes Kupplungsrupfen die durch bisherige Erklärungsmodelle noch nicht hinreichend genau beschrieben werden, was durch die zum Teil großen Dynamiken der Wirkzusammenhänge begründet ist.

This study attempts to examine the architecture in Turkey during the Early Republican period as part of the social, economic and political context of the modernization process of the newly founded state, focusing on the case of the ismet PaSa Girls&
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Institute in Ankara. Firstly, the education of woman in general and the Girls&
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Institutes in particular are scrutinized in order to analyze the changes in the social role of women in the context of modernization in the Early Republic. Secondly, the relationship between women and the built environment is examined with reference to the changes women experienced in this context. The architectural context of the period is analyzed to examine the buildings of the Girls&
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Institutes as contemporary examples of the creation of a modern built environment in Turkey. Lastly, the building of the ismet PaSa Girls&
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Institute is examined in detail, by also making comparisons with other contemporary school buildings in Ankara. The building, which was constructed as a modernist school building by the foreign architect Ernst Egli in the center of Ankara, is evaluated as the representation of modern women and modern architecture for the new nation-state. So, the aim of this study is to assess the ismet PaSa Girls&
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Institute in Ankara as the example of contemporary educational institutions as well as of contemporary architecture in Turkey, corresponding with the attempt of the new nation-state towards modernization.

In order to improve the efficiency of various optical surfaces, optical coatings are used. Optical coating is a process of depositing a thin layer of a material on an optical component such as mirror or lens to change reflectance or transmittance. There are two main types of coatings namely
reflective and antireflective (AR) Coatings. Reflective and antireflective coatings have long been developed for a variety of applications in all aspects of use
for optical and electro-optical systems in telecommunications, medicine, military products and space applications. In this thesis, the main properties of reflective and antireflective coatings, the thin film deposition techniques, suitable coating materials for space applications, space environment effects on coating materials and coating design examples which are developed using MATLAB for space applications will be discussed.

ABSTRACT A STUDY ON LEARNERS&
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READINESS FOR AUTONOMOUS LEARNING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE KOÇ
AK, Ayfer MSc, Department of Educational Sciences Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Fersun Paykoç
September 2003, 115 pages The purpose of this study is to investigate whether, or not, students attending English Language Preparatory School at BaSkent University are ready to be involved in autonomous language learning. This study also argues that before any interventions aiming at fostering autonomy are implemented, it is necessary to explore learners&
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readiness for autonomous learning in four different areas. These areas are as follows: (a) Learners&
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motivation level in learning English, (b) Learners&
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use of metacognitive strategies in learning English, (c) Learners&
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responsibility perception of their own and their teachers&
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in learning English and (d) Learners&
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practice of English in the outside class activities. The questionnaire used in the study was administered to 186 students attending Preparatory School of BaSkent University. The data analysis was carried out through quantitative (frequencies, means, standard deviations, t-test and one-way ANOVA) analysis techniques. The results of the study indicated that majority of the students had high motivation. Another result revealed that the students tended to use some metacognitive strategies like self-monitoring and self-evaluation. The third result showed that the learners considered the teacher as more responsible for most of the tasks during their own learning process. Fourthly, majority of the students tended to be spending quite little time for out-of-class activities to improve their English. The fifth result displayed that females and elementary learners had higher motivation in learning English, but a significant difference was not in the motivation level concerning the learners&
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major field. The sixth result pointed out that females used more metacognitive strategies in learning English
however, proficiency level and major field of the learners were not found to be significant factors in the use of metacognitive strategies. The seventh result revealed that responsibility perceptions did not show a significant difference regarding the respondents&
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gender, proficiency level and major field. Finally, the present study indicated that intermediate level language learners tended to do more out-of-class activities in learning English. On the other hand, the frequency of respondents&
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conducting out-of-class activities in learning English did not show a significant difference concerning the subjects&
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gender and major field. Key words: Learner Autonomy, Learner Responsibility, Self-regulated learner.

This study was designed to identify ninth grade students&
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misconceptions about static electricity concept and to determine relationship among students&
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gender, socio-economic status, interest, experience with students&
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misconceptions about static electricity. For this study, Static Electricity Concept Test (SECT) and Socio-Economic Status, Interest and Experience Questionnaire about Static Electricity (SESIEQ) were developed to assess students&
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misconceptions related to static electricity and their socio-economic status, interest and experience about static electricity, respectively. This study was carried out during 2002-2003 spring semester with 1260 ninth grade students from 9 Anatolian and regular high schools in Ç
ankaya and Mamak districts of Ankara. Findings of the concept test indicated that many students had misconceptions about static electricity. Negative and significant relationships among students&
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gender, socio-economic status, interest, experience and misconception scores were found. The difference between misconception scores of male and female students was significant in favor of males. However, when the data were analyzed using ANCOVA while controlling students&
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socio-economic status, interest in static electricity and experience about static electricity, no difference was observed between the misconception scores of male and female students.

This study aimed to explore students&
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and teachers&
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perceptions with respect to biology education at high school level in order to reveal the reasons of students&
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low achievement in biology as indicated by the university entrance examinations between the years 1996-2002. The study was conducted with a qualitative approach. Therefore two separate interview schedules were developed to be conducted with 45 high school biology teachers and 45 eleventh grade science students in 10 schools including private, Anatolian, and public high schools. All the interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim by the researcher. Results revealed that there are serious problems in biology education such as biology curriculum covering high amounts of topics, unavailable time allocated to biology, insufficient economical conditions... The reasons of students&
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low achievement in biology can be summarized under the headings of students&
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perception of biology, the nature of biology lesson, questions asked in universityentrance examinations, students&
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perception of other science lessons, and biology education in Turkey.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of 5E learning cycle, conceptual change texts and traditional instruction on 8th grade students&
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understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in plants. Besides, the effect of instruction on students&
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attitudes toward science as a school subject was investigated. One hundred and one, 8th grade students from three classes of one elementary school in Ankara attended in this study. This study was carried out during the fall semester of 2003-2004 academic year. The classes were randomly assigned as control and experimental groups. Students in the first experimental group (n=33) received 5E learning cycle based instruction, the second experimental group (n=34) received conceptual change text based instruction and students in the control group (n=34) received traditional instruction. Two-tier multiple-choice diagnostic test, Photosynthesis and Respiration in Plants Concept Test, was used to determine students&
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understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in plants. The test was administered to the sample of the study as pre- and post-test. Students&
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attitudes toward science and their reasoning abilities were measured by Attitude Scale Toward Science and Test of Logical Thinking respectively. The hypotheses of the study were tested by using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). The results indicated that there were significant differences among the treatment groups with respect to their understanding of photosynthesis and respiration in plants. Both 5E learning cycle based instruction and conceptual change text based instruction were found effective to eliminate 8th grade students&
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misconceptions about photosynthesis and respiration in plants. The results also showed that there were no significant differences among the treatment groups with respect to attitudes toward science as a school subject.

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy among women, especially in Western societies. Highly penetrant genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2, together with the reproductive history can constitute only 30% of the cause, so there should be other common genes, which may play a role in breast carcinogenesis according to one'
s lifestyle. In our case, the effect of N-acetyl transferases (NAT1, NAT2) and glutathione-S transferases (GSTM1&
GSTT1) were investigated, since variations in these genes may alter their enzymatic activity and therefore their capacity to biotransform xenobiotic compounds. To evaluate the potential association between NAT1, NAT2, GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes and development of breast cancer, a hospital based case-control study was conducted in a Turkish study population consisting of 37 histologically confirmed incident breast cancer cases and 34 control subjects with no present or previous history of cancer. The only recognizable difference between case and control groups is the percentage of GSTM1 deletion, 67.6% and 44.1% respectively (p=0.047). The frequency of rapid NAT2 acetylator genotype is 44.4% in cases and 23.5% in controls. Especially, women with NAT2 rapid acetylator and GSTM1 null genotypes were at the elevated risk (OR, 3.8
CI, 0.9-15.4). NAT1 rapid acetylator genotype showed no association with breast cancer. These results suggest that GSTM1 null genotype is a susceptibility factor for breast cancer, particularly in the presence of NAT2 rapid acetylator genotype.