Redefining Turkey's Regional Economic Disparities Through Social Participation

Social capital is a common concept for both describing and understanding economical, political and social wellbeing of community. Although it has been defined by economists and sociologists; social capital concept is also highlighted in regional development strategies. Accordingly, assessing the role of social capital in regional development and the impact of social capital to economic growth by means of empirical and theoretical studies has been an important issue in the literature. The relation between social capital and regional economic development in Turkey, as a developing country, has been put forth as the main theme of this paper. The paper aims to provide an overview of the concept of social capital for regional development and discuss social capital in terms of social participation depending on the work of Robert Putnam. Although interregional disparities in Turkey have been studied by many academicians, revealing their relationship with participation is rather new. Searching for this relationship, indicators of social participation is converted to social capital index and regression analysis have been used to explore the relation between social capital and regional economic development. During the construction of indicies, principal component analysis and factor analysis is used to determine the weights of each indicator. Thus, this paper evaluates the social participation in NUTS II level regions in order to foreseen regional disparities in the context of economic development. At this point it has been asserted that social capital in regions both explains and is a result of regional economic development.

Spatial Distribution of Housing Investment and Perception of Earthquake Risk in Istanbul Metropolitan Area

Istanbul, the largest metropolitan area in Turkey with a population of over 15 million inhabitants, lies close to major and active fault lines and has been previously hit by fatal earthquakes several times. Facing a high seismic risk as forecasted in a number of studies; Istanbul is particularly vulnerable due to the high density of old housing areas in the city center. Although there is a great body of knowledge in the literature focusing on the seismic risk of Istanbul and possible scenarios to strengthen the capacity for emergency preparedness in the event of future earthquakes, the attitudes and perceptions of housing investors living under the threat of the earthquake is yet to be explored. This study is an attempt to address this gap and aims to investigate the relationship between the location of the housing investment and perception of earthquake risk of the investors. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire from 117 participants, who made an investment in housing in Istanbul since 1999 Kocaeli earthquake. ArcGIS is used to indicate the spatial distribution of investment and the results provide empirical evidence of how spatial distribution of housing investment differs depending on the earthquake risk perception of the investors.

Multiscale Bayesian State Space Model for Granger Causality Analysis of Brain Signal

Modelling time-varying and frequency-specific relationships between two brain signals is becoming an essential methodological tool to answer heoretical questions in experimental neuroscience. In this article, we propose to estimate a frequency Granger causality statistic that may vary in time in order to evaluate the functional connections between two brain regions during a task. We use for that purpose an adaptive Kalman filter type of estimator of a linear Gaussian vector autoregressive model with coefficients evolving over time. The estimation procedure is achieved through variational Bayesian approximation and is extended for multiple trials. This Bayesian State Space (BSS) model provides a dynamical Granger-causality statistic that is quite natural. We propose to extend the BSS model to include the \`{a} trous Haar decomposition. This wavelet-based forecasting method is based on a multiscale resolution decomposition of the signal using the redundant \`{a} trous wavelet transform and allows us to capture short- and long-range dependencies between signals. Equally importantly it allows us to derive the desired dynamical and frequency-specific Granger-causality statistic. The application of these models to intracranial local field potential data recorded during a psychological experimental task shows the complex frequency based cross-talk between amygdala and medial orbito-frontal cortex. Keywords: \`{a} trous Haar wavelets; Multiple trials; Neuroscience data; Nonstationarity; Time-frequency; Variational methods The published version of this article is Cekic, S., Grandjean, D., Renaud, O. (2018). Multiscale Bayesian state-space model for Granger causality analysis of brain signal. Journal of Applied Statistics. https://doi.org/10.1080/02664763.2018.145581

Spatial Impact of New Housing Trends in the Periphery of Istanbul Metropolitan Area

Globalization had a significant effect on socio-economic and spatial changes in Istanbul as the largest city of Turkey following the trends in other cities of the world since the beginning of 1980. In this transformation process which the city center was dislocated and the land rapidly opened for new demands, while the construction sector flowed to business spaces like office blocks, department stores, and five-star hotels; construction companies that prospered ventured to major housing projects in the urban periphery. Therefore, high-income group left the city center due to low quality of life in inner-city areas caused by the drawbacks of rapid urbanization such as intensive residential areas, lack of open and green sites, traffic and parking problems, increasing crime rates. These high-income group housing areas which are brought a new sight as “gated communities”, mostly developed towards the north where the natural resources e.g. forest and water basin of Istanbul Metropolitan Area are located and became a new issue while squatter settlements are still concerned. However, they are planned as individual projects with their own security systems and modern comfortable components; they developed without integration to the metropolitan master plan. The aim of the paper is to examine locational preferences and planning process of high-income group housing projects and prove their effects on the transformation of urban periphery. Their effects on the land values and the role of the central and local governments on this process are examined. Furthermore, this paper attempts to make a contribution to the literature on gated communities by taking account of their spatial impacts. The main findings of paper put forward that existing high-income group housing projects became attraction points for new projects and affected on land use and transportation pattern, while becoming new threats for natural resources of metropolitan periphery.

Development of a Real Time Guidance System for a Kinematic Test Vehicle

Differential carrier phase GPS measurements are capable of giving centimeter-level accuracies. These accuracies have many potential applications for safety and control of various types of vehicles. For this research, a real-time guidance system is developed. The real-time guidance system can be divided into two components: hardware and software. The hardware component consists of two GPS receivers (one base, one mobile), two wireless 115 Kbaud transceivers, and two laptop computers. One computer is for the reference station and other is for the mobile receiver interface and graphical display. The guided vehicle is a golf car called the Remote Sensing Autonomous Vehicle for EN (RAVEN). The research concentrated on developing real-time data processing algorithms and using these algorithms to show guidance information to the user via a graphical interface. The developed software reads the real-time GPS data using an RS-232 interface and converts it to a usable form for the data processing algorithms. The data processing algorithm compares the real-time data with the desired track and outputs the guidance information to the guidance display. Based on the information from the guidance display, the user is able to drive on the desired track. Four tests were performed to evaluate the guidance system performance and human factors under different circumstances. These tests include update rate tests, a single instrument test, varying parameter tests, and an under hood test. Tests results and user feedback show that the system performs well under most conditions

Adenosine A2A receptors intrinsically regulate CD8+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment

Adenosine A2A receptor (A2AR) blockade enhances innate and adaptive immune responses. However, mouse genetic studies have shown that A2AR deletion does not inhibit the growth of all tumor types. In the current study, we showed that growth rates for ectopic melanoma and bladder tumors are increased in Adora2a-/- mice within 2 weeks of tumor inoculation. A2AR deletion in the host reduced numbers of CD8+ T cells and effector-memory differentiation of all T cells. To examine intrinsic functions in T cells, we generated mice harboring a T-cell-specific deletion of A2AR. In this host strain, tumor-bearing mice displayed increased growth of ectopic melanomas, decreased numbers of tumor-associated T cells, reduced effector-memory differentiation, and reduced antiapoptotic IL7Rα (CD127) expression on antigen-experienced cells. Intratumoral pharmacologic blockade similarly reduced CD8+ T-cell density within tumors in wild-type hosts. We found that A2AR-proficient CD8+ T cells specific for melanoma cells displayed a relative survival advantage in tumors. Thus, abrogating A2AR signaling appeared to reduce IL7R expression, survival, and differentiation of T cells in the tumor microenvironment. One implication of these results is that the antitumor effects of A2AR blockade that can be mediated by activation of cytotoxic T cells may be overcome in some tumor microenvironments as a result of impaired T-cell maintenance and effector-memory differentiation. Thus, our findings imply that the efficacious application of A2AR inhibitors for cancer immunotherapy may require careful dose optimization to prevent activation-induced T-cell death in tumors. ©2014 AACR

Intraoperative Optical Coherence Tomography

Recently, surgical instruments and imaging technology in ophthalmology have shown a great improvement. However, advances in the field of the operating microscope technology still remained unchanged with the various limitations for the surgeons. Invention of optical coherence tomography (OCT) led to a revolution in the diagnosis and monitoring of numerous anterior and posterior segment pathologies. Recently, OCT has been introduced into the operating room with an impact on the surgeons. In this chapter, we review the evolution of OCT for intraoperative use with its feasibility, surgical impacts, and limitations