Calabi-Yau construction by smoothing normal crossing varieties

We investigate a method of construction of Calabi--Yau manifolds, that is, by smoothing normal crossing varieties. We develop some theories for calculating the Picard groups of the Calabi--Yau manifolds obtained in this method. Some applications are included, such as construction of new examples of Calabi--Yau 3-folds with Picard number one with some interesting properties.