Date:iii I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. There are several studies in order to control drug delivery, decrease the toxicity of drugs and also for novel biomedical applications. It is necessary to be able to control the release of the drug within the body by using drug delivery systems. Mesoporous silica compounds have only been discovered twenty years ago and they have already attracted many researchers to study these materials for several applications. SBA-15 particles have a highly ordered regular structure and are a good matrix for guest-host applications. The aim of this study is to be able to address whether the surface functionalization of SBA -15 samples would improve the loading of a drug into these particles. The synthesized SBA-15 particles were surface functionalized by post-grafting synthesis method in order to be used as carrier materials for drug delivery. Amoxicillin was used as a model drug. These mesoporous materials have been characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), small-angle X-ray spectroscopy (SAXS), ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe author would like to express her gratitude to her supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ayşen Yılmaz for her guidance, suggestions and support throughout her graduate studies.

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Extensive data sets on surface chlorophyll a (chl a), depth-integrated primary production (DIPP) and phosphate (PO 4 , µM) averaged for the upper 25 m layer in 1964, 1973, 1978 and for a period (1980 to 1996) of regular measurements have been used to evaluate long-term changes in the upper portion of the euphotic layer of the entire open (>1000 m) Black Sea. After preliminary analysis of seasonal dynamics, special attention was given to data obtained during those periods of the year with relatively stable values, revealing interannual and long-term fluctuations and trends. Of 2 phytoplankton characteristics (chl a and DIPP), long-term trends were obtained only for chl a since only these data covered the entire open sea and all periods investiged. A positive correlation was found between DIPP (using 2 different 14 C methods: actual in situ and simulated in situ) and the more numerous chl a data for different monthly intervals, with significant correlation coefficients (r = 0.51 to 0.82). This means that the observed patterns in long-term variability for chl a may be valid also for DIPP. The results show that interannual fluctuations in chl a are more pronounced during the warm months, from approximately May to September. Chl a levels within this interval were moderate, with a mean of 0.15 ± 0.04 mg m -3 during the first 'quiet' period (1964 to 1986), but increased steadily at a rate of 0.06 mg m

The partial oxidation of alkanes via bromination followed by the reaction with solid metal oxide mixtures (MO) is shown to give an array of products that can be tuned by varying the MO and the reaction conditions.

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