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Resilience and vernacular architecture are two concepts that show high correlation which is underexamined, yet promising. Both concepts were based on a system, which is a built environment that consists of 4 components (infrastructure, institutions, society, economy) and according to both concepts, they face and overcome problems, survive, and advance. This correlation between the two concepts was a starting point for this research. For more in-depth analysis of this correlation Ottoman cities were selected as a geographical context. In line with the historical and current context of TurkishOttoman cities and the concept of resilience, this research aimed to establish a new framework of resilience to bring a new understanding of the historical formation, maintenance, and development of the Ottoman cities. Due to there is no universal method of analyzing and assessing resilience and no previous study about Ottoman cities and their resilience, a novel framework for assessing resilience in the traditional and vernacular Ottoman cities was created. By combining two main approaches to the resilience studies, the framework was shaped by investigating in 4 steps: (1) Resilience of What?, (2) Resilience against What?, (3) Characteristics of Resilience, (4) Types of Resilience. After investigating the formation, maintenance, disaster management, and characters of the case study Amasya, the chronological order of events, actions that were taken before, during, and after disasters were investigated. This data was analyzed by following the 4 steps of the framework. Results showed, 4 types of urban resilience (infrastructural, institutional, social, economic) and 10 characteristics of resilience (redundancy, diversity, independence, interdependence, robustness, resourcefulness, adaptability, creativity, self-organization, collaboration) are evident in the Ottoman cities. Moreover, a new characteristic of resilience in the Ottoman urban context called Relevance/Usefulness was detected. This study concludes that evolutionary (socioecological) resilience is evident in the traditional and vernacular Ottoman cities. Furthermore, for Ottoman cities, urban resilience is maintaining the traditional urban network that consists of spatial organization, waqfs, the society, and economy, retaining this system throughout the stressors (mainly disasters), and continue functioning, maintaining, adapting, transforming, and advancing when/if necessary.

High-level synthesis (HLS) and register transfer level (RTL) are two popular methods to design FPGAs. Both of methods have advantages and disadvantages: HLS provides ease of development, and is less prone to error. Thus, it reduces the development time significantly when designing a hardware system. On the other hand, RTL development enables the developer to make lower level design decisions which can increase the performance and efficiency of the system. Although there have been several studies on comparing HLS and RTL in terms of cost, performance, and area for higher level applications, these studies do not make a one-on-one comparison on the micro-architectural details of a given application. In this thesis, we take further steps to compare HLS and RTL by analyzing the lower level micro-architectural details in HLS and RTL designs for the same applications. We also provide guidelines on how to create these architectures efficiently in both methods. We investigate several image processing algorithms and their designs in RTL and HLS. The algorithms were selected based on their ubiquitous nature and widespread use in image processing applications. We show that if HLS is used to its full potential, it can achieve comparable level of performance as the systems designed using RTL.

In this dissertation we analyze networks of coupled phase oscillators. We consider systems where long range chemical coupling and short range electrical coupling have opposite effects on the synchronization process. We look at the existence and stability of three patterns of activity: synchrony, clustered state and asynchrony. In Chapter 1, we develop a minimal phase model using experimental results for the olfactory system of Limax. We study the synchronous solution as the strength of synaptic coupling increases. We explain the emergence of traveling waves in the system without a frequency gradient. We construct the normal form for the pitchfork bifurcation and compare our analytical results with numerical simulations. In Chapter 2, we study a mean-field coupled network of phase oscillators for which a stable two-cluster solution exists. The addition of nearest neighbor gap junction coupling destroys the stability of the cluster solution. When the gap junction coupling is strong there is a series of traveling wave solutions depending on the size of the network. We see bistability in the system between clustered state, periodic solutions and traveling waves. The bistability properties also change with the network size. We analyze the system numerically and analytically. In Chapter 3, we turn our attention to a very popular model about network synchronization. We represent the Kuramoto model in its original form and calculate the main results using a different technique. We also look at a modified version and study how this effects synchronization. We consider a collection of oscillators organized in m groups. The addition of gap junctions creates a wave like behavior.

Metallothioneins (MT) are a family of low molecular weight (6 kDa) cysteine rich proteins that participate in a variety of functions such as detoxification of heavy metals and homeostasis of essential metals. They can also act as scavengers of free radicals. MT-1 and 2 isoforms are ubiquitously expressed, whereas the expression of the third isoform is limited to the neural tissue. In the PC-3 prostate cancer cell line, MT-3 expression has been shown to inhibit cell growth and increase drug resistance. The goal of the present study was to determine if MT-3 overexpression would influence the growth of human breast cancer cell lines. To determine this, the coding sequence of the MT-3 gene was stably transfected into 2 estrogen receptor positive (MCF-7 and T-47D) and 2 estrogen receptor negative cell lines (Hs578T and MDA-MB-231) having no basal expression of MT-3. Cell growth was determined by counting DAPI-stained nuclei, cadmium resistance by the colony formation assay, MT mRNA expression by RT-PCR, and MT protein by immunoblot. It was demonstrated that MCF-7 and Hs578T cells that overexpress the MT-3 gene are growth inhibited compared to untransfected cells. In contrast, T-47D and MDA-MB-231 cells that overexpress MT-3 were not growth inhibited. Stable transfection of the MT-1E gene had no effect on the growth of any of the 4 cell lines. It was also demonstrated that the overexpression of both MT-3 and MT-1E only increased the resistance of MCF-7 cells to Cd+2. In all instances, stable transfection of the MT-3 or MT-1E gene had no effect on the expression of the other MT isoforms. The study shows that MT-3 can influence the growth of some breast cancer cell lines.