Evaluation of Reforms in Turkish Public Administration After 1980s

Administration is the most tangible part of government and since 1980s, mostly because of the fiscal and economic crises, experiencing a revolution. Traditional Model of Public Administration is criticized because of its being awkward, inefficient, ineffective, and full of procedures and bureaucracy. It is the common estimation that traditional model is unable to answer day‟s needs and demands of citizens. Thus it is accepted that public sector mechanisms need to change. New Public Management is the new paradigm, which replaced traditional model and seen as a global phenomenon and claimed to be solution to the problems caused by traditional model. This new approach‟s techniques and practices drawn from the private sector and its‟ most important key elements are; decentralization, market type mechanism and competition in public sector together with increasing emphasis on performance, outputs and customer orientation. This study concentrates on this respective transformation and intended to draw attention to the main lines of it. The NPM approach spread all over the world and one of the most important assumptions of this new model is that it is universally applicable. Most of the countries are experiencing reforms since the emerging of NPM approach in order to improve their public sectors. The main goal of this thesis, by combining theoretical and empirical analysis coordinately, is studying two models in detail and questions NPM‟s applicability to Turkey. It is argued that management change in public services and introduction of imported methods may be more to do with cultural factors, administrative habits and characteristics that are embedded in the form of public administration of that country. Thus after explaining Turkish public sector as an example to traditional model, and examining the administrative reforms and effects of NPM approach on Turkey, the paper concludes that changes in public sector management have to consider the characteristics of the country in question. The thesis will use historical experiences and highly disputed draft law on re-organizing Turkish public sector as an example for this outcome.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Substratos de crescimento e produção de mudas de figo

Pest attack, disease and soil fatigue have always been a great problem in fig (Ficus carica L.) nursery tree production, especially when traditional methods that use soil culture are applied. Therefore, as an alternative method, substrate culture could be a sustainable and favorable propagation method for growing healthy nursery fig trees of high quality. No information is available on substrate use and its effect on nursery fig tree production. The present study was aimed to define a favorable substrate to cultivate nursery fig trees in substrate culture, and to examine the effects of substrates on morphological and biochemical characteristics of the fig trees by growing plants in a high-tunnel. Fig cv. "Sarilop" (Calimyrna) cuttings were used in this trial as plant material. Three growth media based on perlite (100%), peat (50%) + perlite (50%), and fine sawdust (100%) were tested using soil as a control. Plants were grown in trough culture from the day of planting cuttings up to the uproot point of fig nursery trees, during eight months, and they were not transplanted into another medium during the growing period. To observe the effect of substrates on the nursery fig trees, some morphological and biochemical characteristics were determined. The use of peat + perlite and perlite led to increased plant growth and quality of fig nursery trees grown in high-tunnel.O ataque de pragas e de doenças e o esgotamento do solo sempre foram grandes problemas na produçào de mudas de figo (Ficus carica L) em estufa, especialmente quando são empregados métodos tradicionais que usam solo como substrato. Por isso o uso de substratos sem solo poderia ser alternativa favorável para obtenção de mudas saudáveis de alta qualidade. Não há informação sobre o uso de substratos e seu efeito sobre a produção de mudas em estufa. No presente estudo procurou-se definir um substrato adequado para obtenção de mudas de figo e examinar os efeitos de substratos sobre características morfológicas e bioquímicas de mudas desenvolvidas em estufa tipo túnel alto. Ramas dos cultivares de figo cv. "Sarilop" (Calimyrna) foram utilizadas em três meios de cultura: perlite (100%), turfa (50%) + perlite (50%), e pó de serra fino (100%) tendo o solo como testemunha. O experimento foi desenvolvido em calhas e se estendeu desde o plantio das ramas até o ponto "uproot", por oito meses, não tendo as mudas sido transplantadas para outro meio durante a fase experimental. Para observar o efeito dos substratos sobre as plantas, algumas características morfológicas e bioquímicas foram avaliadas. O uso de turfa + perlite e de perlite como substrato em estufa tipo túnel alto aumentou o crescimento das plantas e melhorou sua qualidade

Effects of etching and adhesive applications on the bond strength between composite resin and glass-ionomer cements

OBJECTIVE: This study determined the effects of various surface treatment modalities on the bond strength of composite resins to glass-ionomer cements. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Conventional (KetacTM Molar Quick ApplicapTM) or resin-modified (PhotacTM Fil Quick AplicapTM) glass-ionomer cements were prepared. Two-step etch-rinse & bond adhesive (AdperTM Single Bond 2) or single-step self-etching adhesive (AdperTM PromptTM L-PopTM) was applied to the set cements. In the etch-rinse & bond group, the sample surfaces were pre-treated as follows: (1) no etching, (2) 15 s of etching with 35% phosphoric acid, (3) 30 s of etching, and (4) 60 s of etching. Following the placement of the composite resin (FiltekTM Z250), the bond strength was measured in a universal testing machine and the data obtained were analyzed with the two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Tukey's HSD post hoc analysis (p=0.05). Then, the fractured surfaces were examined by scanning electron microscopy. RESULTS: The bond strength of the composite resin to the conventional glass-ionomer cement was significantly lower than that to the resin-modified glass-ionomer cement (

THE EVALUATION OF GROUND REACTION FORCES DURING TWO DIFFERENT SOCCER THROW-IN TECHNIQUES: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in Ground Reaction Forces (GRF) between standing and running soccer throw-in. Six male amateur soccer players participated in the current study. All data are expressed as mean±SD. The longer distance was observed in the running throw-in than the standing throw-in. The standing throw-in showed higher values at Vertical (Fz) GRF during back swing, forward swing and release phases. However, that of the running throw-in during follow through phase was higher than that of the standing throw-in. As a result, the longer throwing distance in the running throw-in can be explained that the players spend shorter time in all phases at running throw-in than they did in the standing throw-in. This might causes efficient energy transfer from proximal to distal segment during the running throw-in

Effect of sage extract (Salvia officinalis) on growth performance, blood parameters, oxidative stress and DNA damage in partridges

This study was performed to evaluate the effect of different doses of sage extract on the growth and blood parameters, oxidative stress and DNA damage in partridges. In total, 252 day-old partridges (Alectoris chukar) were used. The birds were divided into four groups: 0.1% flavomycin was included in the diet of the control group (I) while 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5 mL sage extract/kg were included in the diets of treatment groups II, III and IV, respectively. At the end of the experiment no significant differences between treatments were observed in live weight, live weight gain, feed consumption, feed conversion ratio, carcass weight and survival rate. In addition, blood analyses indicated that the differences between groups in the amounts of plasma cholesterol, triglyceride high density lipoprotein (HDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and alkaline phosphates (ALP) were not significantly different. Furthermore, treatments did not affect total sulphydryl (SH) and lipid hydroperoxide (LOOH) concentrations, total antioxidant response or the total oxidant status (TOS). However, sage extract significantly decreased DNA damage in a linear, dose-dependent manner whilst the antibiotic, flavomycin, elevated the oxidative stress index (OSI) and resulted in DNA damage. It was concluded that supplementing sage extract in the partridge diet at the doses studied does not lead to a negative effect on the growth performance of these birds. Keywords: Salvia officinalis, Alectoris chukar, growth performance, blood parameters, DNA damage South African Journal of Animal Science Vol. 38 (2) 2008: pp. 145-15

Protective effect of sildenafil citrate on contralateral testis injury after unilateral testicular torsion/detorsion

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to investigate prevention of contralateral testicular injury with sildenafil citrate after unilateral testicular torsion/detorsion. METHODS: Thirty-seven adult male rats were divided into four groups: sham operated (group 1, n = 7), torsion/detorsion + saline (group 2, n = 10), torsion/detorsion + 0.7 mg of sildenafil citrate (group 3, n = 10) and torsion/detorsion + 1.4 mg of sildenafil citrate (group 4, n = 10). Unilateral testicular torsion was created by rotating the right testis 720º in a clockwise direction for 2 h in other groups, except for group 1, which was served as sham group. After torsion (2 h) and detorsion (2 h) periods, rats were killed. RESULTS: The level of reduced glutathion (GSH) (

Pattern-based decompositions for human resource planning in home health care services

Home health care services play acrucial role in reducing the hospitalization costs due to the increase of chronic diseases of elderly people. At the same time, they allow us to improve the quality of life for those patients that receive treatments at their home. Optimization tools are therefore necessary to plan service delivery at patients' homes. Recently, solution methods that jointly address the assignment of the patient to the caregiver (assignment), the definition of the days (pattern) in which caregivers visit the assigned patients (scheduling), and the sequence of visits for each caregiver (routing) have been proposed in the scientific literature. However, the joint consideration of these three level of decisions may be not affordable for large providers, due to the required computational time. In order to combine the strength and the flexibility guaranteed by a joint assignment, scheduling and routing solution approach with the computational efficiency required for large providers, in this study we propose a new family of two-phase methods that decompose the joint approach by incrementally incorporating some decisions into the first phase.The concept of pattern is crucial to perform such a decomposition in a clever way. Several scenarios are analyzed by changing the way in which resource skills are managed and the optimization criteria adopted to guide the provider decisions. The proposed methods are tested on realistic instances. The numerical experiments help us to identify the combinations of decomposition techniques, skill management policies and optimization criteria that best fit with problem instances of different size