Search results for: Ender Siyez
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 21

Search results for: Ender Siyez

21 Investigating University Students' Attitudes towards Infertility in Terms of Socio-Demographic Variables

Authors: Yelda Kağnıcı, Seçil Seymenler, Bahar Baran, Erol Esen, Barışcan Öztürk, Ender Siyez, Diğdem M. Siyez

Abstract:

Infertility is the inability to reproduce after twelve months or longer unprotected sexual relationship. Although infertility is not a life threatening illness, it is considered as a serious problem for both the individual and the society. At this point, the importance of examining attitudes towards infertility is critical. Negative attitudes towards infertility may postpone individuals’ help seeking behaviors. The aim of this study is to investigate university students’ attitudes towards infertility in terms of socio-demographic variables (gender, age, taking sexual health education, existence of an infertile individual in the social network, plans about having child and behaviors about health). The sample of the study was 9693 university students attending to 21 universities in Turkey. Of the 9693 students, % 51.6 (n = 5002) were female, % 48.4 (n = 4691) were male. The data was collected by Attitudes toward Infertility Scale developed by researchers and Personal Information Form. In data analysis first frequencies were calculated, then in order to test whether there were significant differences in attitudes towards infertility scores of university students in terms of socio-demographic variables, one way ANOVA was conducted. According to the results, it was found that female students, students who had sexual health education, who have sexual relationship experience, who have an infertile individual in their social networks, who have child plans, who have high caffeine usage and who use alcohol regularly have more positive attitudes towards infertility. On the other hand, attitudes towards infidelity did not show significant differences in terms of age and cigarette usage. When the results of the study were evaluated in general, it was seen that university students’ attitudes towards infertility were negative. The attitudes of students who have high caffeine and alcohols usage were high. It can be considered that these students are aware that their social habits are risky. Female students’ positive attitudes might be explained by their gender role. The results point out that in order to decrease university students’ negative attitudes towards infertility, there is a necessity to develop preventive programs in universities.

Keywords: infertility, attitudes, sex, university students

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20 Determination of the Needs for Development of Infertility Psycho-Educational Program and the Design of a Website about Infertility for University Students

Authors: Bahar Baran, Şirin Nur Kaptan, D.Yelda Kağnıcı, Erol Esen, Barışcan Öztürk, Ender Siyez, Diğdem M Siyez

Abstract:

It is known that some factors associated with infertility have preventable characteristics and that young people's knowledge levels in this regard are inadequate, but very few studies focus on effective prevention studies on infertility. Psycho-educational programs have an important place for infertility prevention efforts. Nowadays, considering the households' utilization rates from technology and the Internet, it seems that young people have applied to websites as a primary source of information related to a health problem they have encountered. However, one of the prerequisites for the effectiveness of websites or face-to-face psycho-education programs is to consider the needs of participants. In particular, it is expected that these programs will be appropriate to the cultural infrastructure and the diversity of beliefs and values in society. The aim of this research is to determine what university students want to learn about infertility and fertility and examine their views on the structure of the website. The sample of the research consisted of 9693 university students who study in 21 public higher education programs in Turkey. 51.6 % (n = 5002) were female and 48.4% (n = 4691) were male. The Needs Analysis Questionnaire developed by the researchers was used as data collection tool in the research. In the analysis of the data, descriptive analysis was conducted in SPSS software. According to the findings, among the topics that university students wanted to study about infertility and fertility, the first topics were 'misconceptions about infertility' (94.9 %), 'misconceptions about sexual behaviors' (94.6 %), 'factors affecting infertility' (92.8 %), 'sexual health and reproductive health' (92.5 %), 'sexually transmitted diseases' (92.7 %), 'sexuality and society' (90.9 %), 'healthy life (help centers)' (90.4 %). In addition, the questions about how the content of the website should be designed for university students were analyzed descriptively. According to the results, 91.5 % (n = 8871) of the university students proposed to use frequently asked questions and their answers, 89.2 % (n = 8648) stated that expert video should be included, 82.6 % (n = 8008) requested animations and simulations, 76.1 % (n = 7380) proposed different content according to sex and 66 % (n = 6460) proposed different designs according to sex. The results of the research indicated that the findings are similar to the contents of the program carried out in other countries in terms of the topics to be studied. It is suggested to take into account the opinions of the participants during the design of website.

Keywords: infertility, prevention, psycho-education, web based education

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19 Development of Infertility Prevention Psycho-Education Program for University Students and Evaluation of Its Effectiveness

Authors: Digdem M. Siyez, Bariscan Ozturk, Erol Esen, Ender Siyez, Yelda Kagnici, Bahar Baran

Abstract:

Infertility is a reproductive disease identified with the absence of pregnancy after regular unprotected sexual intercourse that has been lasting for 12 months or more. Some of the factors that cause infertility, which has been considered as a social and societal issue since the first days of the humankind, are preventable. These are veneral diseases, age, the frequency of the intercourse and its timing, drug use, bodyweight, environmental and professional conditions. Having actual information about the reproductive health is essential to take protective and preventive measures, and it is accepted as the most effective way to reduce the rate of infertility. However, during the literature review, it has been observed that there are so few studies that focus on the prevention of the infertility. The aim of this study is to develop a psycho-education program to reduce infertility among university students and also to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. It is believed that this program will increase the information level about infertility among the university students, help them to adopt healthy attitudes, develop life skills, create awareness about the risk factors and also contribute to the literature. Throughout the study, first, the contents of sexual/reproductive health programs developed for university students were examined by the researches. Besides, “Views about Reproductive Health Psycho-education Program Survey” was developed and applied to 10221 university students from 21 universities. In accordance with the literature and the university students’ views about reproductive health psycho-education program consisting of 9 sessions each of which lasts for 90 minutes was developed. The pilot program was carried out with 16 volunteer undergraduate students attending to a state university. During the evaluation of the pilot study, at the end of each session “Session Evaluation Form” and at the end of the entire program “Program Evaluation Form” were administered to the participants. Besides, one week after the end of the program, a focus group with half of the group, and individual interviews with the rest were conducted. Based on the evaluations, it was determined that the session duration is enough, the teaching methods meet the expectation, the techniques applied are appropriate and clear, and the materials are adequate. Also, an extra session was added to psycho-education program based on the feedbacks of the participants. In order to evaluate program’s effectiveness, Solomon control group design will be used. According to this design, the research has 2 experiment groups and 2 control groups. The participants who voluntarily participated in the research after the announcement of the psycho-education program were divided into experiment and control groups. In the experiment 1 and control 1 groups, “Personal Information Test”, “Infertility Information Test” and “Infertility Attitude Scale”, “Self Identification Inventory” and “Melbourne Decision Scale” were administered as a preliminary test. Currently, at the present stage, psycho-education still continues. After this 10-week program, the same tests will be administered again as the post-tests. The decision upon which statistical method will be applied in the analysis will be made afterwards according to whether the data meets the presuppositions or not.

Keywords: infertility, prevention, psycho-education, reproductive health

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18 Investigation of Suitable Linkage System for Transportation Sustainability: The Instance of Bursa in Turkey

Authors: Elvan Ender, Ozge Celik

Abstract:

Transportation systems play a vital role in access and egress in our lives. Concerns about environmental quality, social equity, economic vitality, and the threat of climate change have converged to produce a growing interest in the concept of sustainability, sustainable development, and sustainable transportation. Cities should respect nature, consider the urban ecological environment as an asset, integrate environmental issues into urban planning and administration, and accelerate the transition to sustainable development. This paper reviews current pedestrian and bike transportation in Bursa and proves the effects of unbalanced distribution to neighbourhoods of this presence. In this way creating proposal map for walking and bicycling to constitute a preliminary base for the physical urban planning of Bursa, has been aimed.

Keywords: Bursa, proposal map, sustainability, transportation

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17 The Design and Development of Online Infertility Prevention Education in the Frame of Mayer's Multimedia Learning Theory

Authors: B. Baran, S. N. Kaptanoglu, M. Ocal, Y. Kagnici, E. Esen, E. Siyez, D. M. Siyez

Abstract:

Infertility is the fact that couples cannot have children despite 1 year of unprotected sexual life. Infertility can be considered as an important problem affecting not only sexual life but also social and psychological conditions of couples. Learning about information about preventable factors related to infertility during university years plays an important role in preventing a possible infertility case in older ages. The possibility to facilitate access to information with the internet has provided the opportunity to reach a broad audience in the diverse learning environments and educational environment. Moreover, the internet has become a basic resource for the 21st-century learners. Providing information about infertility over the internet will enable more people to reach in a short time. When studies conducted abroad about infertility are examined, interactive websites and online education programs come to the fore. In Turkey, while there is no comprehensive online education program for university students, it seems that existing studies are aimed to make more advertisements for doctors or hospitals. In this study, it was aimed to design and develop online infertility prevention education for university students. Mayer’s Multimedia Learning Theory made up the framework for the online learning environment in this study. The results of the needs analysis collected from the university students in Turkey who were selected with sampling to represent the audience for online learning contributed to the design phase. In this study, an infertility prevention online education environment designed as a 4-week education was developed by explaining the theoretical basis and needs analysis results. As a result; in the development of the online environment, different kind of visual aids that will increase teaching were used in the environment of online education according to Mayer’s principles of extraneous processing (coherence, signaling, spatial contiguity, temporal contiguity, redundancy, expectation principles), essential processing (segmenting, pre-training, modality principles) and generative processing (multimedia, personalization, voice principles). For example, the important points in reproductive systems’ expression were emphasized by visuals in order to draw learners’ attention, and the presentation of the information was also supported by the human voice. In addition, because of the limited knowledge of university students in the subject, the issue of female reproductive and male reproductive systems was taught before preventable factors related to infertility. Furthermore, 3D video and augmented reality application were developed in order to embody female and male reproductive systems. In conclusion, this study aims to develop an interactive Online Infertility Prevention Education in which university students can easily access reliable information and evaluate their own level of knowledge about the subject. It is believed that the study will also guide the researchers who want to develop online education in this area as it contains design-stage decisions of interactive online infertility prevention education for university students.

Keywords: infertility, multimedia learning theory, online education, reproductive health

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16 Researches on Attractive Flowered Natural Woody Plants of Bursa Flora in Terms of Landscape Design

Authors: Elvan Ender, Murat Zencirkıran

Abstract:

One of the most important criteria that increase the success of design in landscape architecture is the visual effect. The characteristics that affect visual appearance in plant design vary depending on the phenological periods of the plants. In plants, although different effects are observed in different periods of the year, this effect is felt most prominently in flowering periods. For this reason, knowing the flowering time, duration and flower characteristics should be considered as a factor increasing the success of plant design. In this study, flower characteristics of natural woody plants with attractive flowers have been examined. Because of the variability of these characteristics of plants in the region, consideration of these criteria in the planting design processes in the region may increase the success of the design. At the same time, when species selection is made considering the obtained data, visuality and sustainability of natural species can be possible in Bursa city with planting design.

Keywords: Bursa, flower characteristics, natural plants, planting design

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15 Evaluation of Biochemical Parameters in the Blood of Dromedary (Camelus Dromedarius)

Authors: M. Titaouine, T. Meziane, K. Deghnouche

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to determine reference serum biochemistry values from dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) in Algeria and to evaluate potential sources of physiological variability such as the sex, age and season on serum data. Usual serum biochemistry values were determined in blood samples from 26 apparently healthy dromedaries, 11 males and 15 females, divided into 3 lots (ender 4years), (between 5 and 10 years), (up 10 years). Parametric reference ranges and physiological variations are determined for calcium (Ca), organic phosphate (P), magnesium (Mg), natrium (Na), potassium (K), iron (Fe), glucose, triglycerides (TG), cholesterol, urea, creatinine, total proteins and albumin. The results demonstrate: * Values which agreed with literature * Significant statistically differences (Anova test, p < 0.05) depending on: -the sex for Na, glucose, TG, cholesterol, urea, creatinine, albumin, -the age for Ca, P, K, Mg, glucose, TG, b and g globulin, -and season for Fe, urea, total proteins, TG, cholesterol and glucose. These reference ranges for serum biochemical analysis can be used for metabolic and nutritional disorders detection in dromedary.

Keywords: age, biochemistry, dromadery, season, sex

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14 An Overview of Smart Growth Concept from Ecological Planning Perspective

Authors: Ozge Celik, Elvan Ender

Abstract:

With rapidly increasing population growth and industrial revolution in the 1950s, in Turkey migration began to the cities from the countryside. Along the rapid growth of urban population has started to bring many problems. Depending on the uncontrolled urban development, concerns about the protection of natural values has increased day by day. As a result of disturbance on the natural environment, human health has started to be under threat. After all, much urban planning approaches outspread that protecting natural resources by respect to human health and troubleshooting problems emerging with anthropogenic effects. Smart growth concept is one of the chosen methods to resolve the problems in Turkey. In this paper, smart growth concept idea and its criteria will be explained while ecological planning and urban planning problems will be mentioned in Turkey according to the need of concept. Studies, consisting of practical and theoretical smart growth ideas, shows that ecological landscape planning is not included in the urban development process in Turkey. The main idea is to initiate urban development plans considering social and cultural structures of cultural assets and also natural values.

Keywords: ecological landscape planning, smart growth, Turkey, urban development

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13 The Relationship between Coping Styles and Internet Addiction among High School Students

Authors: Adil Kaval, Digdem Muge Siyez

Abstract:

With the negative effects of internet use in a person's life, the use of the Internet has become an issue. This subject was mostly considered as internet addiction, and it was investigated. In literature, it is noteworthy that some theoretical models have been proposed to explain the reasons for internet addiction. In addition to these theoretical models, it may be thought that the coping style for stressing events can be a predictor of internet addiction. It was aimed to test with logistic regression the effect of high school students' coping styles on internet addiction levels. Sample of the study consisted of 770 Turkish adolescents (471 girls, 299 boys) selected from high schools in the 2017-2018 academic year in İzmir province. Internet Addiction Test, Coping Scale for Child and Adolescents and a demographic information form were used in this study. The results of the logistic regression analysis indicated that the model of coping styles predicted internet addiction provides a statistically significant prediction of internet addiction. Gender does not predict whether or not to be addicted to the internet. The active coping style is not effective on internet addiction levels, while the avoiding and negative coping style are effective on internet addiction levels. With this model, % 79.1 of internet addiction in high school is estimated. The Negelkerke pseudo R2 indicated that the model accounted for %35 of the total variance. The results of this study on Turkish adolescents are similar to the results of other studies in the literature. It can be argued that avoiding and negative coping styles are important risk factors in the development of internet addiction.

Keywords: adolescents, coping, internet addiction, regression analysis

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12 Examination of Woody Taxa in Urban Parks in the Context of Climate Change: Resat Oyal Kulturpark and Hudavendigar Urban Park Samples

Authors: Murat Zencirkıran, Elvan Ender

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Climate change, which has become effective on a global scale, is accompanied by an increase in negative conditions for human, plant and animal life. Especially these negative conditions (drought, warming, glowing, etc.) are felt more rapidly in urban life and affect the sustainability of green areas which are of great importance in terms of life comfort. In this context, the choice of woody taxa used in the design and design of green spaces in the city increase one more time. Within the scope of this study, two of four urban parks located in the city center of Bursa province were selected and evaluated for woody taxa. Urban parks have been identified as the oldest and newest urban park in Bursa, and it has been tried to emphasize the differences that may exist over time. It was determined that 54 woody taxa took place in Resat Oyal Kulturpark and 76 woody taxa in Hudavendigar Urban Park. These taxa have been evaluated in terms of water consumption and ecological tolerances by taking into account climate change, and suggestions have been developed against possible problems.

Keywords: ecological hardiness, urban park, water consumption, woody plants

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11 Evaluation of Monumental Trees in Bursa City in Terms of Cultural Landscape

Authors: Murat Zencirkiran, Nilufer Seyidoglu Akdeniz, Elvan Ender Altay, Zeynep Pirselimoglu Batman

Abstract:

Monumental trees make an important contribution to the cultural interaction between societies. At the same time, monument trees, which are considered as symbols of some beliefs, are living beings that are transmitted from generation to generation. Mystical, folkloric and dimensional aspects of our cultural heritage and the link between the past and present, the memorial trees of the generations of the stories conveyed the story of the legends at the same time with the aesthetic features of the objects attract attention. There are many monumental trees that witness historical processes in Bursa, which is a land of very different cultures from the Prusias (BC 232-192). Within this scope, monumental trees located within the boundaries of Bursa province and their contribution to urban culture were evaluated. Monument plane trees recorded in Bursa and its districts were determined by the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, the Governorship of Bursa, the Provincial Directorate of Environment and Urbanism, the Directorate of Protection of Natural Assets, and these trees were examined in situ. As a result of the inspections made, the monument trees living today are classified according to their species. Within the scope of the study, it was determined that there were 1001 monumental tree species in different species within the boundaries of Bursa province. 71.83% of the recorded species were Platanus species and 11.79% were Pinus species. On the other hand, the stories about the contribution of cultural landscapes to the examples of living or now-disappearing examples of Bursa history from these monumental trees have been compiled and presented in the study.

Keywords: Bursa, cultural landscape, landscape, monumental trees

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10 Measuring Banking Systemic Risk Conditional Value-At-Risk and Conditional Coherent Expected Shortfall in Taiwan Using Vector Quantile GARCH Model

Authors: Ender Su, Kai Wen Wong, I-Ling Ju, Ya-Ling Wang

Abstract:

In this study, the systemic risk change of Taiwan’s banking sector is analyzed during the financial crisis. The risk expose of each financial institutions to the whole Taiwan banking systemic risk or vice versa under financial distress are measured by conditional Value-at-Risk (CoVaR) and conditional coherent expected shortfall (CoES). The CoVaR and CoES are estimated by using vector quantile autoregression (MVMQ-CaViaR) with the daily stock returns of each banks included domestic and foreign banks in Taiwan. The daily in-sample data covered the period from 05/20/2002 to 07/31/2007 and the out-of-sample period until 12/31/2013 spanning the 2008 U.S. subprime crisis, 2010 Greek debt crisis, and post risk duration. All banks in Taiwan are categorised into several groups according to their size of market capital, leverage and domestic/foreign to find out what the extent of changes of the systemic risk as the risk changes between the individuals in the bank groups and vice versa. The final results can provide a guidance to financial supervisory commission of Taiwan to gauge the downside risk in the system of financial institutions and determine the minimum capital requirement hold by financial institutions due to the sensibility changes in CoVaR and CoES of each banks.

Keywords: bank financial distress, vector quantile autoregression, CoVaR, CoES

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9 Evaluation of the Spatial Performance of Ancient Cities in the Context of Landscape Architecture

Authors: Elvan Ender Altay, Zeynep Pirselimoglu Batman, Murat Zencirkiran

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Ancient cities are, according to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), landscape areas designed and created by people, at the same time naturally developing and constantly changing sustainable cultural landscapes. Ancient cities are the urban settlements where we can see the reflection of public lifestyle existed thousands of years ago. The conceptual and spatial traces in ancient cities, are crucial for examining the city history and its preservation. This study is intended to demonstrate the impacts of human life and physical environment on the cultural landscape. This research aims to protect and maintain cultural continuity of the ancient cities in Bursa which contain archeological and historical elements and could not majorly reach to the day because of not being protected and to show importance of landscape architecture to ensure this protection. In this context, ancient cities in Bursa were researched and a total of 7 ancient cities were identified. These ancient cities are; Apollonia, Lopadion, Nicaea, Myrleia, Cius, Daskyleion and Basilinopolis. In the next stage, the spatial performances of ancient cities were assessed by weighted criteria method. The highest score is the Nicaea Ancient City. Considering current situation of the ancient cities in Bursa, it is seen that most of them could not survive until our day due to lack of interest in these areas. As a result, according to the findings, it is a priority to create a protective band with green areas around the archaeological sites, thus adapting to nearby areas and emphasizing culture. In addition, proposals have been made to provide a transportation network that does not harm the ancient cities and the cultural landscape.

Keywords: ancient cities, Bursa, landscape, spatial performance

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8 Mobulid Ray Post-Release Mortality to Assess the Feasibility of Live-Release Management Measures

Authors: Sila K. Sari, Betty J.L. Laglbauer, Muhammad G. Salim, Irianies C. Gozali, Iqbal Herwata, Fahmi Fahmi, Selvia Oktaviyani, Isabel Ender, Sarah Lewis, Abraham Sianipar, Mark Erdmann

Abstract:

Taking strides towards the sustainable use of marine stocks requires science-based management of target fish populations and reduction of bycatch in non-selective fisheries. Among elasmobranchs, mobulid rays are faced with high extinction risk due to intrinsic vulnerability to fishing and their conservation has been recognized as a strong priority both in Indonesia and worldwide. Despite their common vulnerabilities to fishing pressure due to slow growth, late maturation and low fecundity, only manta rays, but not devil rays, are protected in Indonesian waters. However, both manta and devil rays are captured in non-selective fisheries, in particular drift gillnets, since their habitat overlaps with fishing grounds for primary target species (e.g. marlin, swordfish and bullet tuna off the coast of Muncar). For this reason, mobulid populations are being heavily impacted, and while national-level protections are crucial to help conservation, they may not suffice alone to insure populations sustainability. In order to assess the potential of applying live-release management measures to conserve mobulids captured as bycatch in drift gillnets, we deployed pop-up survival archival transmitters to assess post-release mortality in Indonesian mobulid rays. We also assessed which fishing practices, in particular, soak duration, affected post-release mortality in order to draw relevant conclusions for management.

Keywords: Mobulid, Devil ray, Manta ray, Bycatch

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7 The Effects of Parent Psycho-Education Program on Problem-Solving Skills of Parents

Authors: Tuba Bagatarhan, Digdem Muge Siyez

Abstract:

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of the psycho-education program on problem-solving skills of parents of high school students in the risk group for Internet addiction. A quasi-experimental design based on the pre-test, post-test and follow up test including experimental and control groups was used in the research. The independent variable of the study was the parent psycho-education program on problem-solving skills; the dependent variable was the problem-solving skills of parents. The research was conducted with the parents of 52 tenth-grade students in the risk group for Internet addiction from two high schools and volunteer to participate research on evaluation of the effectiveness of internet addiction prevention psycho-education program within the scope of another study. In this study, as 26 students were in the experimental groups in the first-high school, the parents of these 26 students were asked if they would like to participate in the parent psycho-education program on parental problem-solving skills. The parents were volunteer to participate in parent psycho-education program assigned experimental group (n=13), the other parents assigned control group 1 (n=13) in the first high school. The parents of the 26 students were randomly assigned to the control group 2 (n=13) and control group 3 (n=13) in the second high school. The data of the research was obtained via the problem behavior scale - coping - parents form and demographic questionnaire. Four-session parent psycho-education program to cope with Internet addiction and other problem behaviors in their children was applied to the experimental group. No program was applied to the control group 1, control group 2 and control group 3. In addition, an internet addiction prevention psycho-education program was applied to the children of the parents in experimental group and control group 1 within the scope of another study. In the analysis of the obtained data, two-factor variance analysis for repeated measures on one factor was used. Bonferroni post-hoc test was used to find the source of intergroup difference. According to the findings, the psycho-education program significantly increases parents’ problem-solving abilities, and the increase has continued throughout the follow-up test.

Keywords: internet addiction, parents, prevention, psyho-education

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6 Passive Vibration Isolation Analysis and Optimization for Mechanical Systems

Authors: Ozan Yavuz Baytemir, Ender Cigeroglu, Gokhan Osman Ozgen

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Vibration is an important issue in the design of various components of aerospace, marine and vehicular applications. In order not to lose the components’ function and operational performance, vibration isolation design involving the optimum isolator properties selection and isolator positioning processes appear to be a critical study. Knowing the growing need for the vibration isolation system design, this paper aims to present two types of software capable of implementing modal analysis, response analysis for both random and harmonic types of excitations, static deflection analysis, Monte Carlo simulations in addition to study of parameter and location optimization for different types of isolation problem scenarios. Investigating the literature, there is no such study developing a software-based tool that is capable of implementing all those analysis, simulation and optimization studies in one platform simultaneously. In this paper, the theoretical system model is generated for a 6-DOF rigid body. The vibration isolation system of any mechanical structure is able to be optimized using hybrid method involving both global search and gradient-based methods. Defining the optimization design variables, different types of optimization scenarios are listed in detail. Being aware of the need for a user friendly vibration isolation problem solver, two types of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are prepared and verified using a commercial finite element analysis program, Ansys Workbench 14.0. Using the analysis and optimization capabilities of those GUIs, a real application used in an air-platform is also presented as a case study at the end of the paper.

Keywords: hybrid optimization, Monte Carlo simulation, multi-degree-of-freedom system, parameter optimization, location optimization, passive vibration isolation analysis

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5 The Link between Corporate Governance and EU Competition Law Enforcement: A Conditional Logistic Regression Analysis of the Role of Diversity, Independence and Corporate Social Responsibility

Authors: Jeroen De Ceuster

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This study is the first empirical analysis of the link between corporate governance and European Union competition law. Although competition law enforcement is often studied through the lens of competition law, we offer an alternative perspective by looking at a number of corporate governance factor at the level of the board of directors. We find that undertakings where the Chief Executive Officer is also chairman of the board are twice as likely to violate European Union competition law. No significant relationship was found between European Union competition law infringements and gender diversity of the board, the size of the board, the percentage of directors appointed after the Chief Executive Officer, the percentage of independent directors, or the presence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee. This contribution is based on a 1-1 matched peer study. Our sample includes all ultimate parent companies with a board that have been sanctioned by the European Commission for either anticompetitive agreements or abuse of dominance for the period from 2004 to 2018. These companies were matched to a company with headquarters in the same country, belongs to the same industry group, is active in the European Economic Area, and is the nearest neighbor to the infringing company in terms of revenue. Our final sample includes 121 pairs. As is common with matched peer studies, we use CLR to analyze the differences within these pairs. The only statistically significant independent variable after controlling for size and performance is CEO/Chair duality. The results indicate that companies whose Chief Executive Officer also functions as chairman of the board are twice as likely to infringe European Union competition law. This is in line with the monitoring theory of the board of directors, which states that its primary function is to monitor top management. Since competition law infringements are mostly organized by management and hidden from board directors, the results suggest that a Chief Executive Officer who is also chairman is more likely to be either complicit in the infringement or less critical towards his day-to-day colleagues and thus impedes proper detection by the board of competition law infringements.

Keywords: corporate governance, competition law, board of directors, board independence, ender diversity, corporate social responisbility

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4 Examination of Recreation Possibilities and Determination of Efficiency Zone in Bursa, Province Nilufer Creek

Authors: Zeynep Pirselimoglu Batman, Elvan Ender Altay, Murat Zencirkiran

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Water and water resources are characteristic areas with their special ecosystems Their natural, cultural and economic value and recreation opportunities are high. Recreational activities differ according to the natural, cultural, socio-economic resource values of the areas. In this sense, water and water edge areas, which are important for their resource values, are also important landscape values for recreational activities. From these landscapes values, creeks and the surrounding areas have become a major source of daily life in the past, as well as a major attraction for people's leisure time. However, their qualities and quantities must be sufficient to enable these areas to be used effectively in a recreational sense and to be able to fulfill their recreational functions. The purpose of the study is to identify the recreational use of the water-based activities and identify effective service areas in dense urbanization zones along the creek and green spaces around them. For this purpose, the study was carried out in the vicinity of Nilufer Creek in Bursa. The study area and its immediate surroundings are in the boundaries of Osmangazi and Nilufer districts. The study was carried out in the green spaces along the creek with an individual interaction of 17.930m. These areas are Hudavendigar Urban Park, Atatürk Urban Forest, Bursa Zoo, Soganlı Botanical Park, Mihrapli Park, Nilufer Valley Park. In the first phase of the study, the efficiency zones of these locations were calculated according to international standards. 3200m of this locations are serving the city population and 800m are serving the district and neighborhood population. These calculations are processed on the digitized map by the AUTOCAD program using the satellite image. The efficiency zone of these green spaces in the city were calculated as 71.04 km². In the second phase of the study, water-based current activities were determined by evaluating the recreational potential of these green spaces, which are located along the Nilufer Creek, where efficiency zones have been identified. It has been determined that water-based activities are used intensively in Hudavendigar Urban Park and interacted with Nilufer Creek. Within the scope of effective zones for the study area, appropriate recreational planning proposals have been developed and water-based activities have been suggested.

Keywords: Bursa, efficiency zone, Nilufer Creek, recreation, water-based activities

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3 Mobulid Ray Fishery Characteristics and Trends in East Java to Inform Management Decisions

Authors: Muhammad G. Salim, Betty J.L. Laglbauer, Sila K. Sari, Irianes C. Gozali, Fahmi, Didik Rudianto, Selvia Oktaviyani, Isabel Ender

Abstract:

Muncar, East Java, is one of the largest artisanal fisheries in Indonesia. Sharks and rays are caught as both target and bycatch, for local meat consumption and with some derived products exported. Of the seven mobulid ray species occurring in Indonesia, five have been recorded as retained bycatch at Muncar fishing port: the spinetail devil ray (Mobula mobular), the bentfin devil ray (Mobula thurstoni), the sicklefin devil ray (Mobula tarapacana), the oceanic manta ray (Mobula birostris) and the reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi). Both manta ray species are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and are protected in Indonesia despite still being captured as bycatch, while all the three devil ray species mentioned here are listed as Endangered and do not currently benefit from any protection in Indonesian waters. Mobulid landings in East Java are caused primarily by small-scale drift gillnets but they also occasionally occur on longlines and in purse-seines operating off the coast of East Java and occasionally in fishing grounds located as far as the Makassar and Sumba Straits. Landing trends from 2015-2019 (non-continuous surveys) revealed that the highest abundance of mobulid rays at Muncar fishing port occurs during the upwelling season from June-October. During El-Nino or above-average temperature years, this may extend until November (such as in 2015 and 2019). The strong seasonal upwelling along the East Java coast is linked to higher zooplankton abundance (inferred from chlorophyll-a sea-surface concentrations), on which mobulids forage, along with teleost fishes constituting the primary target of gillnet fisheries in the Bali Strait. Mobulid ray landings in Muncar were dominated by Mobula mobular, followed by M. thurstoni, M. tarapacana, M. birostris and M. alfredi, however, the catch varied across years and seasons. A majority of immature individuals were recorded in M. mobular and M. thurstoni, and slight decreases in landings, despite no known changes in fishing effort, were observed across the upwelling seasons of 2015-2018 for M. mobular. While all mobulids are listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which regulates international trade in gill plates sought after in the Chinese Medicine Trade, local and national-level management measures are required to sustain mobulid populations. The findings presented here provide important baseline data, from which potential management approaches can be identified.

Keywords: devil ray, mobulid, manta ray, Indonesia

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2 Predicting Career Adaptability and Optimism among University Students in Turkey: The Role of Personal Growth Initiative and Socio-Demographic Variables

Authors: Yagmur Soylu, Emir Ozeren, Erol Esen, Digdem M. Siyez, Ozlem Belkis, Ezgi Burc, Gülce Demirgurz

Abstract:

The aim of the study is to determine the predictive power of personal growth initiative, socio-demographic variables (such as sex, grade, and working condition) on career adaptability and optimism of bachelor students in Dokuz Eylul University in Turkey. According to career construction theory, career adaptability is viewed as a psychosocial construct, which refers to an individual’s resources for dealing with current and expected tasks, transitions and traumas in their occupational roles. Career optimism is defined as positive results for future career development of individuals in the expectation that it will achieve or to put the emphasis on the positive aspects of the event and feel comfortable about the career planning process. Personal Growth Initiative (PGI) is defined as being proactive about one’s personal development. Additionally, personal growth is defined as the active and intentional engagement in the process of personal. A study conducted on college students revealed that individuals with high self-development orientation make more effort to discover the requirements of the profession and workspaces than individuals with low levels of personal development orientation. University life is a period that social relations and the importance of academic activities are increased, the students make efforts to progress through their career paths and it is also an environment that offers opportunities to students for their self-realization. For these reasons, personal growth initiative is potentially an important variable which has a key role for an individual during the transition phase from university to the working life. Based on the review of the literature, it is expected that individual’s personal growth initiative, sex, grade, and working condition would significantly predict one’s career adaptability. In the relevant literature, it can be seen that there are relatively few studies available on the career adaptability and optimism of university students. Most of the existing studies have been carried out with limited respondents. In this study, the authors aim to conduct a comprehensive research with a large representative sample of bachelor students in Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey. By now, personal growth initiative and career development constructs have been predominantly discussed in western contexts where individualistic tendencies are likely to be seen. Thus, the examination of the same relationship within the context of Turkey where collectivistic cultural characteristics can be more observed is expected to offer valuable insights and provide an important contribution to the literature. The participants in this study were comprised of 1500 undergraduate students being included from thirteen faculties in Dokuz Eylul University. Stratified and random sampling methods were adopted for the selection of the participants. The Personal Growth Initiative Scale-II and Career Futures Inventory were used as the major measurement tools. In data analysis stage, several statistical analysis concerning the regression analysis, one-way ANOVA and t-test will be conducted to reveal the relationships of the constructs under investigation. At the end of this project, we will be able to determine the level of career adaptability and optimism of university students at varying degrees so that a fertile ground is likely to be created to carry out several intervention techniques to make a contribution to an emergence of a healthier and more productive youth generation in psycho-social sense.

Keywords: career optimism, career adaptability, personal growth initiative, university students

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1 A Corpus-based Study of Adjuncts in Colombian English as a Second Language (ESL) Argumentative Essays

Authors: E. Velasco

Abstract:

Meeting high standards of writing in a Second Language (L2) is extremely important for many students who wish to undertake studies at universities in both English and non-English speaking countries. University lecturers in English speaking countries continue to express dissatisfaction with the apparent poor quality of essay writing skills displayed by English as a Second Language (ESL) students, whose essays are often criticised for their lack of cohesion and coherence. These critiques have extended to contexts such as Colombia, where many ESL students are criticised for their inability to write high-quality academic texts in L2-English, particularly at the tertiary level. If Colombian ESL students are expected to meet high standards of writing when studying locally and abroad, it makes sense to carry out specific research that can perhaps lead to recommendations to support their quest for improving argumentative strategies. Employing Corpus Linguistics methods within a Learner Corpus Research framework, and a combination of Log-Likelihood and Bayes Factor measures, this paper investigated argumentative essays written by Colombian ESL students. The study specifically aimed to analyse conjunctive adjuncts in argumentative essays to find out how Colombian ESL students connect their ideas in discourse. Results suggest that a) Colombian ESL learners need explicit instruction on specific areas of conjunctive adjuncts to counteract overuse, underuse and misuse; b) underuse of endophoric and evidential adjuncts highlights gaps between IELTS-like essays and good quality tertiary-level essays and published papers, and these gaps are linked to prior knowledge brought into writing task, rhetorical functions in writing, and research processes before writing takes place; c) both Colombian ESL learners and L1-English writers (in a reference corpus) overuse some adjuncts and underuse endophoric and evidential adjuncts, when compared to skilled L1-English and L2-English writers, so differences in frequencies of adjuncts has little to do with the writers’ L1, and differences are rather linked to types of essays writers produce (e.g. ESL vs. university essays). Ender Velasco: The pedagogical recommendations deriving from the study are that: a) Colombian ESL learners need to be shown that overuse is not the only way of giving cohesion to argumentative essays and there are other alternatives to cohesion (e.g., implicit adjuncts, lexical chains and collocations); b) syllabi and classroom input need to raise awareness of gaps in writing skills between IELTS-like and tertiary-level argumentative essays, and of how endophoric and evidential adjuncts are used to refer to anaphoric and cataphoric sections of essays, and to other people’s work or ideas; c) syllabi and classroom input need to include essay-writing tasks based on previous research/reading which learners need to incorporate into their arguments, and tasks that raise awareness of referencing systems (e.g., APA); d) classroom input needs to include explicit instruction on use of punctuation, functions and/or syntax with specific conjunctive adjuncts such as for example, for that reason, although, despite and nevertheless.

Keywords: argumentative essays, colombian english as a second language (esl) learners, conjunctive adjuncts, corpus linguistics

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