Predatory Publishing and Turkey

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Technology policy: patent protection and industrial R&D subsidies in Turkey

Some developing economies (especially East Asian Countries) have long imitated western technology. It means that these economies adopted an imitative attitude to new industrial technologies with regard to technology policies. Some changes recently have occurred. Asian economies such as South Korea and Taiwan begin to become fast innovators. Since this development that stimulates the imitation of technology makes worried some rich countries, some measures against this development have been taken by the global economic institutions which are driven by rich countries. In the process of globalization, the main measures, which focus on industrial property rights and industrial R&D subsidies, have been insisted on developing countries by WTO and etc. The present paper examines how national technology policy in Turkey is affected by the globalization process and proposes an evaluation on the pros and cons of patent system and industrial R&D subsidies.Turkey; Technology; Technology Policy; R&D Subsidy; Patent Protection

Precise and Immediate Action against Predatory Conferences

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Health care priorities in developing countries: A systematic review

Countries around the globe are struggling to find an affordable health care system. Developing countries have it particularly challenging with a lack of health care professionals and funding to spend on health care. This systematic review analyzes five developing countries’ (China, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Peru and Turkey) health care systems to find what is working well and what needs improvement. The main findings that these countries could adopt are requiring medical student graduates to do their residency in rural areas, giving more power of health care to local governments rather than the federal government, making insurance companies non-profit, and providing vaccinations free of charge

The 2007 elections and parliamentary elites in Turkey: The emergence of a new political class?

This essay analyzes the impact of the 2007 elections in Turkey on the structure of the parliamentary elites. The article begins with an examination of the recent trends in turnover rates. The electoral earthquake of 2002 resulted in the highest turnover in modern Turkish politics. In 2007, the turnover rate declined to 59.3 percent as a result of the relative stabilization of party competition. In the subsequent sections of the essay, the data on the social backgrounds of the deputies with respect to age, gender, occupation, education, and knowledge of the Arabic language are examined. The analysis reveals some notable differences as well as similarities between the political parties that entered the Grand National Assembly in 2007. Of particular importance is the fact that 73 out of 341 AKP deputies know Arabic, presumably as a result of their training at the Imam-Hatip schools. The essay concludes with the observation that the AKP's decisive electoral victories in 2002 and 2007 have facilitated the rise of a new political class of parliamentary elites in Turkey

Food quality and safety situation in Turkey: governance and barriers to success

The institutional environment for food quality and safety in Turkey is rapidly changing in the last decade but there are still some inconsistencies compared with the EU. High costs of establishing quality assurance systems (QAS), inefficient capacity of the institutional frame, unknown consumer attitudes, low level of production techniques and lack of awareness of producers and consumers are important weaknesses, when evaluating the current food quality and safety situation in Turkey. Whereas, rapid development of QAS, increase in consumer demands, harmonisation of legislation with the EU, increase in the research and incentives for quality production, and production potentials were determined as strong points. When analysing the socio-economic situation of farms, producers’ knowledge, perception and interest in quality with Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), it is found that producers did not accumulate capital because of the low profits, a handicap for expanding and investing into production and product quality. Moreover, the producers' knowledge is limited and their quality perception mainly focuses on food safety. As a result, academic studies and research projects needs to be extended and the adaptation of the Turkish legislation with the EU should be completed accordingly.Food Quality Governance, SMEs Barrier for Food Quality, Food Quality Assurance, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Powerful together with diabetes:The development and evaluation of a social network based intervention for Dutch, Surinamese, Turkish and Moroccan people with type 2 diabetes living in socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods

This thesis describes the development and evaluation of the social network based intervention Powerful Together with Diabetes (PTWD) targeted at Dutch, Turkish, Moroccan and Surinamese patients with type 2 diabetes living in socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods. This intervention aims to increase social support for diabetes self-management (DSM) and to decrease social influences hindering DSM (e.g. peer pressure and social norms). The intervention was evaluated in a quasi-experimental study with a control group that received a standard group based educational intervention (Know Your Sugar) and a second control group that received usual care. We aimed to evaluate the effects of the intervention on haemoglobin A1C (HbA1c), quality of life, health-related outcome measures, DSM, and intermediate outcome measures compared with the intervention for the comparison group and standard care at 3, 10, and 16 months. Further, we aimed to assess the feasibility and cost effectiveness of the intervention. We conclude that PTWD contains promising intervention components, such as skills training and providing feedback using role-playing exercises, and involving significant others in self-management tasks by making a shared action plan. These seem to contribute to an increase in social support, and a decrease in social influences hindering DSM. We carefully conclude that the intervention improved certain aspects of DSM. Finally, we describe successful recruitment and retention strategies for this target population including sending an invitation letter from the GP, phoning participants, the positive atmosphere and social interactions between participants, taking practical barriers into account, the diplomas and adapting the intervention to the participants’ preferences

Birds of a feather petition together? Characterizing e-petitioning through the lens of platform data

E-petitioning platforms are increasingly popular in Western democracies and considered by some lawmakers and scholars to enhance citizen participation in political decision-making. In addition to social media and other channels for informal political communication, online petitioning is regarded as both a useful instrument to afford citizens a more important role in the political process and allow them to express support for issues which they find relevant. Building on existing pre-internet systems, e-petitioning websites are increasingly implemented to make it easier and faster to set up and sign petitions. However, little attention has so far been given to the relationship between different styles of usage and the causes supported by different groups of users. The functional difference between signing paper-based petitions vs. doing so online is especially notable with regard to users who sign large numbers of petitions. To characterize this relationship, we examine the intensity of user participation in the German Bundestag’s online petitioning platform through the lens of platform data collected over a period of five years, and conduct an analysis of highly active users and their political preferences. We find that users who sign just a single petition favor different policy areas than those who sign many petitions on a variety of issues. We conclude our analysis with observations on the potential of behavioral data for assessing the dynamics of online participation, and suggest that quantity (the number of signed petitions) and quality (favored policy areas) need more systematic joint assessment

Influence of Corporate Attributes on Forward-looking Information Disclosure in Publicly Traded Turkish Corporations

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to determine the extent of forward-looking information disclosure in publicly traded Turkish corporations, and to identify drivers of disclosure. Through content analysis of annual reports, we identified the level of forward- looking information disclosure in Turkish listed manufacturing companies. According to the results, forward-looking disclosure level is not high among Turkish companies currently; the majority of the disclosures are qualitative; and while all firms spread good news, no one discloses the bad ones. Furthermore, the results indicate that firm size and auditor size are the significant variables in explaining forward-looking information disclosure level; other five variables (i.e. profitability, leverage, ownership structure, independent directors, listing age) are insignificant