A mixed integer linear programming model with heuristic improvements for single-track railway rescheduling problem

A rescheduling algorithm for trains on a single-track railway was developed in case of disturbances that would cause conflicts between trains. This algorithm is based on mixed integer linear programming (MILP) with speed-up routines. The model considers station capacities explicitly (i.e., the number of available tracks for meeting and overtaking operations). Because the model is too hard for the solvers (CPLEX in this study) to tackle, three speed-up routines were devised when rescheduling trains. These routines are a greedy heuristic to reduce the solution space, using the lazy constraint attribute of the solver and a multiobjective approach to find a good initial feasible solution that conforms to actual railway operation. The algorithm was tested on a hypothetical rail line for different sizes of timetable instances with disturbed trains in a maximum two-hour time horizon. It managed to solve the hardest instances within a three-minute time limit thus minimizing the total weighted delay of rescheduled trains. The optimality gap metric is used to show the effectiveness and efficiencies of the speed-up heuristics developed

Attachment Styles, Self-Construal, Sociodemographic Variables and Discriminatory Attitudes in Turkish Counselor Candidates

In this study, relationship of counselor candidates’ discriminatory attitudes to religiosity, political ideology, academic achievement, self-construal and attachment styles was examined. Differences in discriminatory attitudes in terms of gender and class level variables were also investigated. The study was carried out with 383 counseling students from a state university which located in northeast of Turkey. The data were collected with Sociodemographic Data Form, Discriminatory Attitudes Scale, Relational, Individual and Collective Self-Aspects Scale and Relationship Scales Questionnaire. Discriminatory attitudes were found as significantly related with religiosity, political ideology, academic achievement, self-construal and attachment styles. Besides, religiosity, political ideology, academic achievement, individualistic and collectivist self-construal emerged as significant predictors of discriminatory attitudes. In terms of gender, male students were found as having stronger discriminatory attitudes than female students to homosexuals, women, different races-ethnicities and religions and in total. There were no significant differences by class-level except discrimination against women. By discussing these findings, suggestions for counselor education and further studies were presented. Keywords: Counseling, discriminatory attitudes, education

Investigation of MIF gene promoter variations and their haplotypes in the Alzheimer disease in Turkish population: (Combined effect of two MIF gene promoter variations may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease)

In Alzheimer’s disease, which is characterized by amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain tissue, many components such as acute phase proteins, cytokines, and proteases contribute to the progression of the disease or are part of the pathological process. The macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) gene encodes a cytokine, which is secreted by lymphocytes, and has a role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune/inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. The purpose of this study to investigate the association between Alzheimer disease and MIF gene promoter polymorphisms. The 205 patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and 130 age-sex matched healthy individuals were investigated in terms of MIF -173 G/C and MIF −794 CATT polymorphisms. The genotyping of MIF -173 G/C was determined using the RT-PCR method. MIF-794 CATT polymorphism was analyzed using PCR and DNA Sequencing. In terms of binary genotypes and haplotypes, the 5/5-GC (p = 0.004), 6/7-GG (p = 0.02) and, 6/6-GG (p = 0.026) binary genotypes, and 5-C (p = 0.003), 7-G (p = 0.026) and 6-G (p = 0.025) haplotypes were differed significantly between the patients and the controls. This is the first study investigating the relationship between AD and MIF in terms of different genotypes, haplotypes and, alleles. The fact that the binary genotype and allele distributions are significantly different between the patient and control group, suggests that this MIF variants may play a role in the pathogenesis of AD. © 202

Malaria Epidemiology in Mersin Province, Turkey from 2002 to 2011

Background: Malaria is an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium spp. with high morbidity and mortality in human in tropical and subtropical regions. In recent years, number of malaria cases has been significantly reduced because of fight with the disease in Turkey. This study intended to investigate the malaria epidemiology in Mersin Province from 2002 to 2011 using data from the provincial Public Health Directorate. Methods: Over ten years, 303573 blood samples were taken from the people by active and passive surveillance methods and blood smears were prepared. Smears were stained with Giemsa and examined under the microscope. Results: Totally, 73 people including 44 male and 29 female were positive in terms of Plasmodium spp. It was determined that P. vivax observed in 67 cases while P. falciparum in 6 cases. Cases were mainly observed in 15 to 44 years old range, showed an increase between June-September periods and a significant decrease after 2006. Out of the 73 malaria cases, 54 cases were from Mersin Province and 13 cases were imported from another province of Turkey. Six cases were transmitted from abroad. Conclusion: These results provide information about malaria epidemiology in an endemic area in Turkey and contribute its prevention in Mersin Province

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHERS’ SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS AND RESISTANCES TO CHANGE

Self-efficacy is referring to the people’ perceptions and beliefs regarding their thinking, creativity, ability and know-how. Concepts such as change, development, novelty and innovation are studied in educational institutions and schools more than as in all institutions and businesses. In this concept, the relationship between people’ self-efficacy perceptions and the ability of people to cope with the problems in the process of change and to produce new solutions to these problems is a matter of curiosity. For this reason, teachers’ perceptions regarding self-efficacy and resistance to change were investigated. The aim of the study is to determine the self-efficacy and resistance to change levels of primary school teachers and to determine the level of resistance to change of variables mentioned in the self-efficacy. Relational screening model was used in the study and the data obtained by quantitative data collection. The sample of this research consists 368 teachers serving in 40 official primary schools in Manisa-Salihli in 2013-2014 education year. The data of the study were obtained by ‘’Teachers’ Resistance to Change Scale’’ and ‘’General Self-Efficacy Scale.’’ Data analysis included frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, r- statistic and multiple regression analysis tests. As a result of the research, it is seen that teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions are ‘’I agree’’ in all the sub-dimensions and in every part of the scale, and teachers’ perceptions of resistance to change are ‘’I do not agree‘’ in all sub-dimensions and in every part of the scale. Self-efficacy explains indifference size of resistance to change is as 19 %, passive-active resistance is as 13 % and reluctance dimension is as 16 % in a low level. Low levels do not mean that self-efficacy is less effective in resistance to change. Almost 20 % of these factors are important in resistance to change, and other factors are required to be detected.  Article visualizations

HEALTH SECTOR WORKERS’ PERCEPTION OF VIOLENCE: THE CASE OF ISTANBUL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF MEDICINE

DergiPark: 315524trakyaiibfThis study focused on the violence in health industry which is a topicthat doesn’t have many academical study, lecture, activity report, Project orgraduate thesis on. The main aim of the study is to measure the violencetendency of the health workers and encountered violence types of the healthworkers, also to estimate the main causes of the violence and trying to measurethe demographical and social structures of the people carrying out the violenceacts.This measurement is being done among the employees of the İstanbulUniversity İstanbul Medical Faculty, the oldest medical Faculty in Turkey, by aperception violence survey. The survey results were interpreted by thefrequency analysis method. Those, the method used for the interpreting theresults and the target group that the surver was done on increase theimportance of the study.As a result of the study, it was seen that violence in the healthindustry increased as results of the delays in health services and dissatisfactionof people from the health services. The other general results of the study arethose; violence by applied generally not by the patients but by the relativesof the patients, generally by the low educated males, all over the hospital,  generally in daytime working hours as verbalinsults

Light-weight and flexible Ni-doped CuO (Ni:CuO) thin films grown using the cost-effective SILAR method for future technological requests

Products based on nanostructured flexible thin films, which are anticipated to make their way into our lifetimes in the near future. Therefore, nanostructured metal-oxide thin-film materials grown on flexible substrates are anticipated to meet emerging technological requests. In this article, we present a promising light-weight and flexible thin-film material using un-doped and Ni-doped CuO samples. Ni:CuO flexible thin-film materials were fabricated by using the cost-effective SILAR method on cellulose acetate substrates and the effects of both Ni doping and bending on the change in electrical and optoelectronic performances were investigated. It is observed that Ni doping has a great impact on the main physical properties of flexible CuO samples. The optical bandgap value of the un-doped CuO film improves with increasing Ni ratio in the growth bath. Also, sheet resistance values of the un-doped and Ni:CuO samples are a little affected due to bending of samples for bending radius ~ 20 mm. These flexible all solution-processed nanostructured CuO samples are promising candidates for use in future optoelectronic applications

Estimating diameter at breast height (DBH) from diameter at stump height (DST) in triple mixed stands in the region of Artvin in Turkey

This study was supported by the Scientific Research Projects Unit of Karadeniz Technical University under Project KTU 2009.113.001.6.Diameter at breast height is used as an independent variable in the calculation of most tree or stand parameters because it can be measured easily and has high correlation with tree variables. But, it is necessary to estimate the size of the DBH of the tree concerned to have knowledge of the tree which has been separated from the area. In this study, DST-DBH relationships were investigated on stands where Oriental Spruce (So), Scots Pine (Ps) and Eastern Black sea Fir (Fb) were mixed. For this purpose, 206 trees (69 So, 69 Ps and 68 Fb) were used which were cut from 23 different sample areas taken in fully closed SoPsFb and PsSoFb stands in Artvin. According to the statistics analysis; models that best explain the variability of the DBH are power for spruce, quadratic for pine and linear models for fir. These models can explain the variance of DBH in triple mixed stands by 95.2% for spruce, 96.5% for pine and 96.4% for fir, and standard errors of models are 1.850, 1.598 and 1.643 respectively. As a result, these models, which at a certain height of success in predicting DBH, can be used by practitioners at fully closed triple mixed stands in Artvin.Göğüs çapı, kolay ölçülebilir olması ve diğer ağaç değişkenleriyle yüksek korelasyona sahip olmasından dolayı, tek ağaç veya meşcere parametrelerinin birçoğunun hesaplanmasında bağımsız bir değişken olarak kullanılmaktadır. Ancak ormanlık alandan ayrılmış olan ağaç hakkında bilgi sahibi olabilmek için göğüs çapı büyüklüğünü tahmin etmek gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada, Doğu Ladini (L), Sarıçam (Çs) ve Doğu Karadeniz Göknarı (G) karışık meşcerelerinde göğüs çapı-kütük çapı ilişkisi araştırılmıştır. Bu amaçla Artvin’de tam kapalı olan LÇsG ve ÇsLG meşcerelerinden alınan 23 farklı örnek alandan kesilmiş olan 206 ağaç (69 adet L, 69 adet Çs ve 68 adet G) verisi kullanılmıştır. Yapılan istatistiksel analizlere göre, göğüs çapındaki değişkenliği açıklayan en iyi modeller Ladin’de power, Sarıçamda kuadratik ve Göknarda ise doğrusal modeller olmuştur. Bu modellerin üçlü karışık meşcerlerde göğüs çapı değişkenliğini açıklama oranları Ladin için %95,2, Sarıçam için %96,5 ve Göknar için de %96,4 ve bu modellerin hataları da sırasıyla 1.850, 1.598 ve 1.643 şeklinde bulunmuştur. Sonuç olarak, göğüs çapını tahmin etmede belli başarı seviyesinde olan bu modeller, Artvin’deki tam kapalı üçlü karışık meşcerelerde uygulayıcılar tarafından kullanılabilir olarak bulunmuştur

Anxiety, motivation, stress levels and associated factors among university students in the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic affects society seriously in terms of psychosocial aspects, but this effect is more intense on some specific population groups. University students are among the most affected population groups by the pandemic. This study was conducted to determine the anxiety, motivation, stress levels, and associated factors among health science students during the COVID-19 pandemic. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The population of this descriptive and cross-sectional study consisted of students studying at health-related departments in three universities in Turkey. The data were collected from 855 students determined by the stratified sampling method using the online survey method. A questionnaire developed by the researchers and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were used to collect the data. Percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, One-Way ANOVA test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression analysis were performed to evaluate the data. RESULTS: The results revealed that the mean age of the students was 20.85±2.37 years (min: 18; max: 41), 80.5% were women, 38.0% were nursing students, 13.7% had a family member with the diagnosis of COVID-19. The BAI mean score was found to be 29.00±7.8. According to the multiple linear regression analysis, the factors affecting students’ anxiety scores significantly were being female, impaired sleep and nutrition patterns, decreased motivation, increased stress level and having a family member with the diagnosis of COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Health science students experience severe anxiety due to COVID-19 pandemic and have moderate motivation and stress scores. Being a woman, having impaired sleep and nutrition patterns, reduced motivation, increased stress level and a family member diagnosed with COVID-19 are factors influencing the level of anxiety

Psychological contract breaches and organizational cynicism at hotels

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the impacts of psychological contract breaches experienced at hotels on the formation of organizational cynicism. Within this framework, the study is towards employees working at different departments and levels. 222 employees have participated in the research, and the data are analyzed with a MannWhitney U Test, Kruskal Wallis Test and Spearman correlations test. In the study, employees have a perception of psychological contract breach and have developed some cynical attitudes towards the hotel. Also it is found that the cognitive dimension of cynicism has an almost strong relationship with the perception of a psychological contract breach. It was determined that the affective dimension of cynicism had a weak relationship with the behavioral dimension and again an almost strong relationship with the perception of a psychological contract breach. Finally, a weak relationship is seen between the behavioral dimension of cynicism and the perception of a psychological contract breach. The present study states the relationship between the former concepts at hotels and provides a starting point for further research in organizational behavior not only at hotels but also at other service sectors. An important point emphasizing the need for the study is that the study is the first study to put forward the relationship between the concepts of psychological contract breach and cynicism within the national scope